


Three's Company

by Ultra



Series: Three's Company [1]
Category: Gilmore Girls
Genre: Alternate Universe, Awkward Conversations, Best Friends, Birthday Presents, Books, Brothers, Christmas, F/M, Face Punching, Family, Family Drama, Friends to Lovers, Friendship/Love, Getting Together, Getting to Know Each Other, Kissing, Love Triangles, New York City, Roommates, Thanksgiving
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-24
Updated: 2017-04-24
Packaged: 2019-05-21 21:45:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 28
Words: 69,009
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14923388
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ultra/pseuds/Ultra
Summary: Logan Huntzberger & Jess Mariano need a third person to share the rent on their NYC apartment. Despite initial reservations about sharing with guys, Rory decides to move in. Two has always been company, three might be a crowd. Though Logan & Jess always vowed to put their friendship before women, things might just change when Rory Gilmore enters their lives.





	1. Chapter 1

“It’s insane! I mean, I know there are a lot of people in New York, but I kind of figured that by definition there were also a lot of spaces for those people to live in. You know, spaces that aren’t doorways?”

Rory was frustrated and it was hardly surprising. For the last week she had been schlepping around New York trying to find a place to live. Any place she tried that was even half decent seemed to be gone before she could get her foot in the door. Only if the situation was truly dire. There were one or two places that were gorgeous and wonderful but way outside the price range for less-than-rich Rory. She was starting to give up hope of ever finding anywhere suitable.

“Oh, hon, I’m sorry it’s so tough out there,” Lorelai sympathised from her end of the phone conversation. “But you still have this weekend. Maybe a New York miracle will happen and you’ll find the best place ever with really cheap rent and a totally awesome room-mate.”

Rory sighed. “Right now I’d settle for half-decent with medium rent and a room-mate that doesn’t think Marilyn Manson is to be revered.”

“Yeah, never, ever go back to that last place,” Lorelai advised, shuddering at the thought. “Sending you all of the luck vibes, babe!”

“Appreciated,” her daughter told her. “I’ll call you again when I get back to the motel.”

“Love you.”

“Love you too.”

The call was ended and Rory put her cell back into her pocket. Her feet hurt from trudging too many miles around the city (she still wasn’t totally comfortable on the subway yet) and her head ached with worrying about her living arrangements.

When her stint of following Barack Obama around the country finally came to an end, Rory hadn’t been sure what she was going to do with her life. She certainly hadn’t expected a real live New York newspaper to see her work online and decide she was good enough to work for them without her so much as applying for a position. It had all happened so quickly. Inside of a month she had finished one job and gotten another, getting to spend just a little time in Stars Hollow before having to concentrate on getting digs in New York. That part had not come easy, and so far no luck. Rory was fast running out of time and gas money after coming into the city five times in the last week to hunt for apartments. This weekend, she was booked into a motel for both tonight and tomorrow night, potentially longer if she couldn’t find a place to live. Going back and forth to the Hollow wasn’t going to work, especially not once she started work, and now that was only two days away.

Calling into the nearest coffee shop, Rory ordered an extra-large Americano and pulled out her phone again to check her email. She had signed up to a few sites that would send a notification if a place that met her needs came up on their radar. If Rory had any potential apartments to go see she would rather know now, before she got back to the motel. Sadly there was nothing from the house-hunting sites, but there was one other message.

“Paris?” said Rory to herself as she paid for her coffee and headed for the door.

Simultaneously sipping her drink and checking the message, Rory was amazed by what she read. It seemed as if Paris’ fiancé Doyle had been in New York this morning himself visiting one of his journalistic sources. Whilst in the apartment building, he spotted a flyer saying that a room-mate was required. Paris said that Doyle assured her the building looked clean and the elevator worked, plus it was in a decent neighbourhood. There was a picture of the flyer attached to the email and Rory opened it, zooming in on the details. It looked very professional, all printed out on the computer rather than hand-written. She skimmed down the information and her eyes went wide at the rent. It seemed too good to be true. Affordable rent in a decent building, Rory was convinced that there had to be something wrong. One of the girls living there had to be a psycho or something, but she supposed it was worth a look.

“Beggars can’t be choosers,” she said to herself, finding a well-placed mail box to set her coffee on whilst she copied the number from the picture of the flyer into her notebook and then called it on her cell right then and there.

The ringing seemed to go on forever, and then finally voicemail kicked in. The owner of the phone hadn’t recorded her own message, just leaving the automatic robot voice to say ‘please leave a message after the beep’.

“Oh, hi. Er, I saw your ad, or actually my friend did, for the apartment share? I hope this is the right number. Um, I was wondering if I could come over and see the place? Maybe today, if that’s cool? Well, if you could call me back or something please.”

Rory went on to leave her number and then hung up, cursing herself for sounding so stupid. She was twenty three not twelve and yet trying to leave a simple message on a woman’s voicemail about an apartment suddenly became impossible the moment she tried.

“What is wrong with me?” she muttered, picking up her coffee again and taking a long drink.

Rory was barely ten feet from the mail box when her cell buzzed in her hand. A text message from the number she had just dialled was duly opened and she smiled when she read the contents.

‘Hey, if you want to see the apartment come by any time between four and eight today, Jess.’

Rory was happy to see a lack of text-speak in the response. She was never one of those girls that went in for all the shorthand and slang that most people liked to use in text messages. It was an affront to the English language in her eyes and she would not stoop so low! This Jess girl seemed to be of the same mind.

“Hopefully we’ll have more than just that in common,” she said to herself, noting with some horror that a man walking by was staring at her like she was crazy. “Gotta stop talking to myself,” Rory said definitely, checking her watch.

She had a couple of hours before the apartment was available for viewing. Just enough time to go back to the motel, change her shoes, and grab a snack.

* * *

“That’s your idea of cleaning up?” said Logan with a grin.

He was leaning in his bedroom doorway looking out into the living area at Jess who was picking up books and clothes at random and literally throwing them into his own room.

“That girl who might want to rent the third bedroom could be here any second,” his friend told him, continuing to toss a jacket and a couple of CDs onto his bed and out of sight of prying eyes. “She’s the first call we’ve had in two weeks and we need help with the rent. So long as everything she can see looks generally clean, we might stand a chance here.”

“I’m curious about this woman,” said Logan, folding his arms and looking thoughtful. “I mean, this is New York for God’s sake, not always the safest place, and a young woman has an urge to share a confined living space and rent with two guys she never met before?”

“Maybe she’s desperate.” Jess shrugged. “Or maybe she carries,” he considered. “Girl with a piece has nothing to fear, right?”

“Oh good, Annie Oakley’s coming to stay,” said Logan with a smirk. “I guess she could ride the other bus.”

“How would that make a difference?” asked Jess, frowning at the very idea. “All that would mean is she wouldn’t be into us, doesn’t stop her from having to worry about us coming onto her.”

“Not that either of us would do that,” his room-mate threw in fast. “I mean, we had a deal.”

Jess nodded. “Yes, we did,” he agreed easily.

It wasn’t something they assumed would come up, but just as a precaution, the day Jess and Logan posted the ad, they made a gentleman’s agreement. Should they get a female room-mate, regardless of any other factor, neither Jess nor Logan would date her, have sex with her, or attempt any kind of physical or emotional relationship beyond a reasonably friendly room-mate type of deal. 

“Okay, this is just about as good as it gets,” said Jess then, running his hand back through his hair as he turned full circle in the centre of what passed for their living room.

It wasn’t exactly huge. With the two seater couch, an armchair that didn’t match, and the TV all shoved in there, the space Jess was occupying in the centre was pretty much all the room there was to move. At least it didn’t look like a bomb exploded now, that was something.

“The bathroom is lemony fresh, the dishes are out of the kitchen sink, and the closet is cleaned out,” Logan recapped about the three tiniest rooms in the apartment.

Jess looked daggers at him. “If you keep calling it the closet, nobody is going to believe it’s a bedroom.”

“Hey, I’m sorry, man,” said Logan, hands raised in mock-surrender. “But seriously, even with that tiny bed in there, we’re gonna be lucky to pitch it as a real living space. You better hope this Rory chick is the eighth dwarf, or she likes to put herself into a plastic box at the circus.”

“It’ll be fine,” said Jess, more out of hope than belief.

Right now they were in some trouble. Logan’s wonderful internet-based business that he had sworn would make him a gazillionaire just like Daddy Dearest was going nowhere fast one way or the other, and Jess himself had yet to sell more than a handful of copies of his first short novel. Waiting tables and such was keeping their heads above water, but only just. They needed the extra income that a new room-mate would bring, but Logan wasn’t wrong about the non-space of the ‘third bedroom’. He really hoped this Rory person was as desperate for accommodation as she sounded on the phone.

* * *

“Desperate as I am, if it is anything like decent, I’m going to have to take it, Mom,” said Rory as she walked down the street towards the building where her potential new home would be. “I doubt Doyle and Paris would have suggested it if it were that bad.”

“I’m guessing space is going to be tight, sharing with two other girls,” said Lorelai. “But hey, might be nice. Get that dorm room vibe back from the early Yale days.”

“Maybe,” Rory considered. “Well, I’m outside the building,” she said then, looking up. “It looks nice, pretty clean and this is one of the better low-rent neighbourhoods.”

“That’s something, I guess,” her mother commented. “Well, good luck, kid.”

“Thanks, Mom,” said Rory with a smile before saying her goodbyes for now and hanging up from the call.

Taking a deep breath, she went into the entranceway and faced the set of buzzer buttons for the apartments in the building. There were thirty units and she pressed for number twenty three, as per the flyer. There were a few mumbled and crackly words that she couldn’t make out, but as soon as she said who she was, the lock on the gate disengaged and she was granted access to the options of stairs or elevator. Risking the latter, she was surprised to find that it not only worked but actually seemed clean and in good repair. The building was good, that was one tick in the box. Now to see the actual apartment and meet the people she would be living with.

Rory stepped out on the second floor and found the door to number twenty three just a few steps to her left on the other side of the hall. Knocking sharply, she expected it to open fairly swiftly. She was not ready for the man that greeted her.

“Oh. Um, I’m sorry, is this not apartment twenty three?”

“You’re in the right place. Rory, right?” said the blond guy with a winning smile.

“Er, yes. That would be me,” she stammered a little, confused by the male presence. “And you are?”

“I’m Logan,” he told her, holding out a hand to shake. “Come on in, take a look around,” he urged her, standing aside from the door to allow her access.

Rory wandered in, feeling just a little nervous. Her hands gripped the strap of her purse a little tighter, especially when a door opened and a second man stepped out.

“Hi, you must be Rory.”

If Rory wasn’t so freaked out at being in a place she didn’t know with two strange men she wasn’t expecting, she might have noticed how good looking both the guys were, but right now her mind was otherwise occupied with a growing feeling of panic.

“I’m... confused,” she admitted. “I thought I was coming here to view a room for rent... with two women,” she explained. “I left a message for a person named Jess?”

“That would be me,” the second guy told her.

“He gets that a lot,” Logan explained. “From his name, obviously. Nobody ever met Jess and thought he was a girl. Well, there was one time...”

“Can it, Huntzberger,” Jess snapped at his friend, though a small smirk broke through, taking the edge off the insult. “Ignore him,” he advised Rory. “Sometimes his mouth runs away and his brain can’t keep up.”

Rory smiled slightly, but she didn’t move far from the door, still a little wary of the situation she found herself in. Through the general concern for her own safety, a thought hit her and she frowned in concentration a moment.

“Huntzberger,” she said at last, looking at Logan. “As in Mitchum Huntzberger?”

“Guilty as charged,” he admitted, hands held aloft as if he were surrendering. “Mitchum is my father, though these days he’s less than likely to admit it. Me and Jess here are both orphans in our own way. He left his home to save himself, I was kicked out of mine. I like to think we’re both better off.”

“I’m sure you are,” said Rory, trying for a smile.

Maybe this wasn’t a double-cross by two guys with some nefarious plan. Maybe they were on the level, and she really had just mistakenly believed Jess was short for Jessica. He never had pretended to be a woman. Nobody ever promised her female room-mates here, she just assumed.

“I get the name thing,” she said to Jess at last. “I mean, Rory can be a guy’s name, so... Well, you weren’t expecting a guy, right?” she checked.

“No, you sounded female on the message you left,” he assured her with a smile that did something unexpected to her insides. “Honestly? We thought it was a long shot that a woman wanted to live with two guys she didn’t know, but we really need a room-mate.”

“Amen to that,” Logan agreed, sitting down hard on the couch. “Look, here’s the deal, Rory. We’re decent guys, no convictions of concern, no bodies under the floor. Yes, we drink sometimes, but I’m a non-smoker, and Jess here keeps his dirty habit outside of the apartment. We work hard, we sometimes party a little, but we’re not weirdoes, monsters, or dangerous freaks.”

“You do realise that’s exactly what a weirdo or a freak would say, right?” said Rory smartly, the curve of her lips proving that for all she said was true, she was at least partially joking.

Neither Logan nor Jess seemed like the psycho type. The apartment seemed pretty small for three people, but it looked to be tidy and clean enough. The area was decent, the building in good repair. Rory reminded herself she was getting desperate, but the other voice in her head asked if she was sure.

“Look, take a look around. See the room we’re offering for a very reasonable rate, and if you think you might be interested, ask us anything you want,” offered Jess, looking as desperate as Rory felt in a lot of ways. “I get where you’re coming from, you don’t know us, and a person alone in the city needs to be careful, especially a woman contemplating moving into a place with two guys she never met before, but what Logan told you? It’s true. We’re not looking for a virgin sacrifice or some kind of slave or whatever. There are no skeletons in the closet and no Satanic rituals are done here,” he told her with a smirk he couldn’t seem to help.

“I wasn’t... I don’t think you’re necessarily bad people,” said Rory, trying not to look as nervous as she felt. “But you’re right. A person does have to be careful, and it’s not just because you’re guys. Women can be axe murderers too.”

“Are you suggesting we need to frisk you for weapons?” asked Logan, one eyebrow raised.

Rory rifled in her purse and produced a cylinder that she showed to both him and Jess.

“This is all I’m carrying,” she told them of the can of pepper spray. “I don’t actually like that I have it but my friend Paris insisted it was necessary for life in New York and bought it for me. Sometimes I think she has a point.”

“Sleep with it under your pillow if it makes you feel better,” said Jess, shrugging his shoulders.

A guy didn’t look that nonchalant about poison sprayed in his face if he really was on the level. Rory was tempted. The rent was reasonable, the area was good. All the reasons to accept ran freely through her head as Logan offered to show her the room they were offering and the rest of the apartment. Sure the bedroom was small, but Rory didn’t need much more than a bed and a little storage, and there was space for that. The kitchen area was even smaller but it wasn’t as if Rory ever cooked, and the bathroom seemed pretty clean for one used primarily by guys.

“So, what’s the verdict?” asked Jess as Logan and Rory returned to the centre of the living space at last.

“It seems like a nice place, and I could afford the rent. Work is a reasonable walk or a really convenient subway ride away, and... well, you guys seem friendly.”

“We’re known for our friendly behaviour,” said Logan, nodding his head. “As well as our gentlemanly qualities,” he smiled.

Jess rolled his eyes. “Don’t push it, man.”

Rory couldn’t help but smile. She meant what she said about the place and about the guys. They did seem nice, and hey, if she really wanted to be absolutely certain, there was such a thing as a background check. The word ‘desperate’ ran through her head one more time, and her eyes fell on her purse that contained the can of mace. She did the quickest pro-con list of her life inside of her head, and then Rory looked from Logan to Jess with a wide smile.

“If you guys are happy about me moving in, I’d love to take the room,” she told them.

“Well, welcome to the neighbourhood, Rory,” said Logan with a grin, holding a hand out for her to shake on the deal.

Turning to Jess, she waited for him to make the same friendly gesture and gladly shook his hand when given the chance.

“Nice to have you here, Rory,” he told her.

“Nice to be here, Jess,” she replied with a smile.


	2. Chapter 2

“I’m still not sure I like the idea of you moving in with two guys,” said Lorelai for what had to be the hundredth time. “I mean, you hear stories...”

“And you hear plenty about women going psycho too,” Rory reminded her for the hundred and first time as the car was pulled up to the kerb. “From movies alone you have Single White Female, Fatal Attraction, Carrie,” she counted off on her fingers. “Besides, I have pepper spray, basic self-defence from that class Paris dragged me to at Yale, and if it makes you feel better, the guys even offered to help me put a bolt on my door.”

Lorelai knew she couldn’t argue with what her daughter said. She had yet to meet these guys that were offering Rory room in their apartment, and part of the reason she was here now was to put her mind at rest that they were the decent people that Rory claimed. The other reason was to bring as many of Rory’s belongings as she was likely to need, mostly clothes and books, and even then it was deemed unlikely that everything would fit in the tiny room she was renting.

“Okay,” said Lorelai with a sigh as she shut off the car engine. “Let’s get this stuff where it’s going to be and meet these high class room-mates of yours.”

“You’re gonna be nice, right?” Rory checked.

Lorelai’s eyes went wide. “Honey, when am I ever anything else?” she asked, hand on her chest as she feigned shock and innocence both.

Rory just rolled her eyes and smiled as she exited the car. She and her mother both grabbed a box each, locked the car up, and went on into the building.

“Hey, working elevator!” said Lorelai as they headed up inside the car. “That’s a good sign.”

“It’s a nice building,” Rory agreed. “And honestly, Jess and Logan are really nice guys, I promise.”

“Always appreciate a glowing endorsement,” said Logan, catching the tail end of what Rory was saying when the elevator doors opened on the correct floor. “Hey, Rory.”

“Logan, hi,” she greeted him. “Um, this is-”

“Your younger sister, right?” he said with a smile and a wink, extending a hand to Lorelai.

“And you must be the oh so charming ex-heir to the Huntzberger fortune,” said Lorelai smartly. “Thanks for the help,” she added, dumping the box she was carrying into Logan’s waiting hands. “Lead on, MacDuff!”

“As you wish, m’lady”, he replied with a grin, even as Rory turned beet red.

“I’d apologise for her, but she is the woman who gave me life, so...”

Logan said nothing, just continued to smile as he did indeed lead Lorelai and Rory down the hall to the apartment. Kicking the door got Jess’ attention and he came to open it, looking just a little confused when he found a trio rather than just Rory on the other side.

“Huh,” he said. “It’s a party. I thought you were headed to work?”

“Damsels in distress, man,” said Logan, shrugging his shoulders. “What can I say?”

Opening the door wider, Jess let everyone inside. There really wasn’t a whole lot of room once the four of them were packed into the living room, and Lorelai was the first to say so.

“Wow, you guys really took that ‘Living in a Box’ song seriously, huh?”

“Mom!” Rory exclaimed, knowing she would be face-palming by now if she wasn’t carrying a box full of her belongings.

It was Jess who noticed he was being the ungentlemanly one since Logan was clearly toting Lorelai’s load. He moved to take the box from Rory’s hands.

“I got this,” he assured her. “And I can help with any more boxes, if you want?”

“Sadly, I do have to go,” said Logan, putting his own load down on the floor and checking his watch. “Sorry, ladies. Tables don’t wait themselves,” he said regretfully as he squeezed by the Gilmore girls and disappeared out the door.

Jess was on his way to Rory’s room with the one box when she paid attention again, then he was coming back for the other one that Logan had abandoned. 

“So, you must be Jess,” sad Lorelai with a smile.

“Yes, ma’am,” he said with a nod, knowing he had done wrong the second her face wrinkled up. “Or no?”

“Mom is allergic to the word ‘ma’am’,” Rory explained with a giggle. “She’s not big on Ms Gilmore either. Try Lorelai,” she suggested in a stage whisper as if imparting some great secret whilst Lorelai pretended she didn’t notice.

“Okay then.” Jess nodded. “Pleasure to meet you, Lorelai.”

“Likewise, Jess,” she replied happily. “Sorry about dissing your place before. First few years of Rory’s life we lived in a converted potting shed so I have no room to judge. Still, you gotta admit, it’s a little pokey in here.”

“It’s in New York and you get what you pay for,” he said with a shrug. “So, more boxes?”

If Jess thought he was going to escape further conversation with his new room-mate’s mom by pushing himself into the busy work, he was sadly mistaken. Rory seemed as if she could talk for her country, but Lorelai was in a whole other league. Mostly it was general comments and telling Jess things about Rory, how great she was, how much Lorelai just wanted to be sure her daughter would be okay in New York with no friends and family around. Jess actually didn’t mind the protective mother thing. There was a part of him that wished he had something similar when he was growing up or even at all. He said nothing about any of this though, and didn’t plan on it unless he was asked. Maybe not even then actually.

“So as much as I came along to be helpful, I’m willing to admit I was being a little nosey too,” said Lorelai honestly, as they rode the elevator back up to the apartment with the final load of Rory’s things. “Not just the apartment but I kinda wanted to meet these two guys that want to live with my baby girl.”

“I’m twenty three,” Rory reminded her mom with a look.

“Doesn’t make her any the less your mother,” said Jess with a smirk that was impossible not to find sexy, or so Rory thought.

“Exactly,” said Lorelai triumphantly. “I like this guy, he makes sense,” she said definitely of Jess.

“That’s a minority opinion,” he told her as the elevator doors pinged and opened up on the correct floor.

With the last box and bag taken over to Rory’s room and dumped inside, the work Jess could help with was done. Lorelai had helped herself to a seat on the couch when he returned to the living room and was encouraging Rory to join her.

“C’mon, sweets, it’s your place too now. You are allowed to sit in it.”

Rory seemed to realise she was right all at once and flopped down beside her. Jess took the chair, wondering if just running off to his room wouldn’t be a safer choice, and yet knowing he would be a bad guy if he did that. Hospitability was important where a room-mate’s mother was concerned, he guessed, though he wasn’t entirely sure of the correct etiquette, truth be told.

“So, what about you, Jess?” asked Lorelai curiously. “You have family in the city?”

“Nope,” he told her easily. “Honestly? I don’t really have family anywhere. There was just me and Liz... my mom,” he explained. “And then when I was old enough, I went out on my own.”

“You’ve lived alone in New York since you were eighteen?” asked Rory, finding the prospect more than a little daunting.

“Seventeen, actually, but I’m NYC born and raised so it didn’t seem like such a big deal to me,” he explained, shrugging his shoulders. “Very different to your safe little town in the sticks.”

“True dat,” Lorelai agreed.

Rory shifted uncomfortably in her seat and Jess did the same. It was clear that this was weird for them, and possibly weirder still with Lorelai sat between them. They needed to get to know each other, both them and Logan, and then find some kind of harmony in which to live. Lorelai had wanted to look these boys in the eye and see for herself that they didn’t seem in any way psychotic. Not that there was any way to tell really but Lorelai’s instincts about people were usually pretty sound, with the exception of guys she chose to date perhaps, and that was so not the case here. Logan and Jess were both polite, well-mannered, clean and properly dressed. She had no reason to think they weren’t reasonable guys, and she certainly couldn’t blame Jess for having left home so young. She had done the same at a year younger, and pregnant at the time, no less.

“Okay, well, I should be making tracks,” she said so suddenly both Rory and Jess seemed to jump.

“Already?” asked Rory, scrambling to get up to.

“Sweets, the inn won’t run itself, and you don’t really need me here. There’s not room for the two of us in your bedroom and Jess already did all the heavy lifting, so I guess it’s time for me to get back and leave you to be the grown up girl I raised you to be.”

It was strange how child-like Rory suddenly felt stood before her mother. After a year away from the comforts of home and the loving care of her hometown, she ought to be ready for this. The Obama trail was long and tough, a lot of nights in some less than pleasant motels at times, surrounded by strangers and always busy. It was hard at first, but Rory had coped. By comparison, moving into this apartment with Jess and Logan ought to be simple, and yet the idea of being left here alone without her mommy suddenly felt wrong and too much to bear.

“There’s no spare mattress this time, babe,” said Lorelai, apparently able to read the thoughts right out of her daughter’s head. “But you’re cool, right?” she asked, moving Rory’s hair back over her ear for her.

She met her daughter’s eyes, the meaning of her question very clear. It wasn’t just a question of whether or not she was okay with Lorelai leaving now, that she needed no more moving-in help. This was the final check that Rory was okay with the whole situation, the living with two strange guys things.

“I’m fine,” said Rory bravely. “It’s going to be weird for a while, living this whole other life, but I’ve done it before,” she noted, thinking of the months on the road last year. “At least here I have a permanent roof over my head.”

“Or upstairs neighbours anyway,” said Jess, unable to resist throwing in a comment.

Lorelai turned to look at him and found a smile for the guy.

“I can trust you,” she said, a statement not a question as she met his eyes. “I get this feeling that I can anyway, but know this, Jess. If anything were to happen to Rory, and I mean anything...”

“You’ll kill me?” Jess guessed, knowing how protectively Mama Bear mothers were wont to be about their daughters

The laughter from Lorelai’s lips did surprise him.

“Oh honey, you’re precious,” she told him, shaking her head, a grin spread across her face still. “Death would be a sweet release from what I would do to you and your pretty-boy friend if anything happens to my kid.”

Jess had wide eyes and an open mouth for the whole five minutes it took for Lorelai to say goodbye to Rory, wish her luck with the new job, and secure a promise of regular phone calls, emails, and visits. Lorelai was gone from the apartment before Jess realised he was still catching flies and closed his mouth.

“Your mom is...” he began, unsure how to finish thanks to a hundred words crashing through his brain all at once, and at least half of them were unflattering.

“Yeah, she can be kind of intense when it comes to me and the whole protection thing,” Rory admitted, feeling just a little embarrassed about it. “I guess it’s because there’s really only ever been me and her. My dad was never really around and she has issues with her parents. My mom is my best friend as much as my mother.”

“That’s cool.”

Rory wasn’t sure if he meant that or if he was just saying it. If she knew Jess better, she might be able to tell, but right now they were little more than strangers. It made her wonder why she had agreed to move into the apartment like this so easily, and then she remembered how desperate she had been. Here they were on Saturday afternoon, with her new job starting early on Monday. It was here or nowhere, and the second choice wasn’t even an option.

Looking at Jess who looked about as awkward as she felt, Rory felt the need to make conversation. her mind went back to a few minutes ago, to Jess’ admission that he had been out on his own since he was a teen.

“You really left home at seventeen?” she checked, finding the concept terrifying.

“Yep,” he replied easily, popping the P.

“Why?”

“Your mother is your best friend. My mother is a whack-job.”

He explained it so succinctly and with this nonchalant shrug of his shoulders, Rory really didn’t know what to say. She was saved from needing to think of anything when an alarm beeped loudly and Jess pulled his cell from his back pocket to shut off the noise.

“I really need to get ready for work,” he said, glancing up from the screen to Rory’s face. “Will you be okay here alone?”

“Um, sure, yeah,” she said, nodding perhaps a little too much. “I can pack my stuff away.”

Jess nodded once and then gestured towards a door between her room and his own. “We cleared you a shelf in the bathroom cabinet, and there’s a cupboard in the kitchen...” he continued, leading her there and showing her which one. “We’re not into the whole labelling things in the fridge deal but if you really want to keep your stuff separate.”

“It’s fine,” Rory asured him. “I don’t really cook or anything, and anybody is free to dig in if I leave left over take out in there. I won’t cry.”

“Good to know” Jess smiled, reaching into his pocket then and producing keys. “These would be yours too.”

“Thanks,” said Rory, taking them from him and looking down at the two metal objects with apparent wonder. “So, this is it. I have a New York apartment. Well, a third of one anyway,” she noted.

“Yes, you do.”

“I almost feel a chorus of ‘I’ll Be There For You’ coming on,” she admitted, before noticing Jess’ expression, “but I’ll repress.”

“I appreciate that,” he told her, not entirely joking.

He excused himself and moved past her to his own room then. He had to get ready for work, that was what he said, and Rory certainly didn’t want to hold him up. Maybe she should have asked him exactly where he did work. All she knew for sure was that he worked more than one job, same as Logan. At some point, they probably ought to have more of a conversation about what they did and what they liked, the kind of things room-mates should know about each other. Somehow, Rory doubted that would happen today.

Jess was gone from the apartment within the next five minutes and Rory retreated to her room. Her bed and the floor were covered in boxes and bags to be dealt with and she squeezed herself into the very last bit of space.

“This is it,” she said to herself, finding a smile.

There was definitely a scary aspect to being here, alone in a New York apartment for the first time, but somehow Rory knew she was going to be okay. This was going to be her new home.


	3. Chapter 3

It took a surprising amount of time for Rory to get all her stuff unpacked and put away. There wasn’t exactly a whole lot of space in her rented room, and just the one shelf in the bathroom and one cupboard in the kitchen to fill, but Rory was crazy-obsessive about her organising so it took a while to get it all just right. Unfortunately, it didn’t quite take long enough.

When she was done tidying everything away, the guys were both still out at work, and so Rory was left alone with her own company. Sitting in her room seemed a little sad, even if she was reading a book. Rory wandered out into the living room and hovered a moment before sitting down heavily on the couch. As her mom had told her, this was her apartment now too. She was allowed to sit and to watch TV or anything she wanted here. With that in mind, she picked up the remote and switched on the television, flipping through channels until she found something she liked.

Half way through 60 Minutes she got annoyed by the subject matter and tried again to find something entertaining. Within ten minutes she heard the apartment door open and flew up off the couch like she had received an electric shock.

“Hey,” said Jess with a look. “You okay?”

“Um, yeah, sure.” Rory nodded, pushing a hand back through her hair. “I just... I’m fine,” she said, sitting down again fast.

She was already turning pink before she managed to hide herself from view and Jess decided not to make a big deal about her being so jumpy. This was kind of a big deal for her, he supposed, living in the city for the first time, living with strangers on a permanent basis. Jess kept his smirk to himself and came over to the couch.

“All unpacked and happy?”

“Pretty much,” she told him, glancing up over the back of the couch to where he stood. “The apartment is great, but it turns out America’s Funniest Home Videos? Not so funny anymore.”

“Apparently not,” Jess agreed as he looked to the screen. “I’m guessing you didn’t eat yet?”

“Not really.”

The fact was it hadn’t occurred to her to be hungry. It would be strange for a Gilmore to go more than an hour or two without needing to eat, but apart from a few snacks that were packed in with the rest of her things, Rory didn’t really have any food in the apartment yet and wouldn’t touch anything belonging to Jess or Logan. She could have ordered in, but Rory had no idea which places nearby were the good ones, so she had just kind of waited until one of the guys came home.

“Here,” said Jess, tossing a large paper bag onto the couch beside her. “Knock yourself out. I’m going to go wash off the diner smell.” 

He disappeared into the bathroom a moment later and Rory turned her attention to the great-smelling bag beside her. Burgers, fries, possibly doughnuts existed in there. Digging in as she had been advised, Rory found she was way more hungry than she even thought, though she was wary of taking too much. There was nothing to say that Jess meant for her to eat everything here. He probably wanted some for himself.

Ten minutes and the better part of a burger and fries later, the bathroom door opened and Jess stepped out, hair dripping everywhere, a towel around his waist. Rory’s eyes went wide as anything, her mouth falling open to expose chewed up beef and potato. She closed it fast when some crumbs rolled out.

Jess disappeared into his bedroom, apparently not even noticing what he had caused.

Rory swallowed very hard and sucked in a breath. She knew Jess was good-looking, so was Logan. She just really hadn’t thought about seeing either of them half-naked on her first day here. Not that Jess meant anything by it, she was sure. He was probably used to just wandering freely in his apartment without having to think about an audience. Rory put her eyes back on the TV and tried to think of anything else.

Jess emerged from his room a few minutes later and dropped down on the couch by Rory with only the bag of food separating them. She turned to look at him and struggled to smile around one too many fries in her mouth.

“I’m guessing you were hungry?”

She fought to swallow her food, hand over her mouth to hide the inelegant display.

“Sorry,” she apologised. “I wasn’t sure how much of this was mine...” she admitted, gesturing to the bag.

“It’s cool,” Jess assured her. “I mostly had you in mind when I brought it home. I ate some at the diner anyway. Leftovers are free,” he told her, whispering like it was a secret.

Rory honestly wasn’t sure if he was kidding or not, so just concentrated on the food she was already in the middle of.

“So, you settled in okay?” asked Jess, clearly keen on making conversation, if only to avoid an awkward silence.

“Yes, thank you.” Rory nodded. “Put all my stuff in its place. Um, so you work in a diner?”

“Sometimes,” he told her. “I also take shifts at Walmart. Don’t laugh,” he urged her.

“I wouldn’t” she promised.

“I know, I don’t seem like the corporation type, but us starving artists have to eat, right?”

“Right.” Rory nodded once, then looked thoughtful. “When you say artist...?”

“Author, actually,” he explained, looking more awkward than even he had earlier when Lorelai was threatening him with worse-than-death consequences. “Er, I wrote a short novel. It’s not much but this indepedant publishing house in Philly decided it was worth the paper and ink. Author promoted so I’m my own sales guy. It’s not exactly the best seller every author dreams of but it’s not nothing.”

“You wrote a book?” Rory checked, eyes widening by the second. “An actual book that’s been published?”

Jess nodded, a little overwhelmed by her enthusiasm. Though he was aware he had shifted at least two boxes of books into the apartment for Rory today, it hadn’t really occurred to him she was all that into literature. She was about to start a job with a newspaper tomorrow, those books were as likely to be non-fiction as anything else, or she could be into Harry Potter, Twilight or Nancy Drew. He hadn’t asked yet, he didn’t know, but she sure seemed excited at the idea of any published novel right now.

“It’s nothing you would’ve heard of,” he said of his own work. “Like I said, I have to get bookshops to take it myself and there’s not a lot of time between the diner and Walmart, plus working on any new stuff that comes to mind.”

“Still, that’s amazing. I'm living with an actual published author!” Rory enthused. “I’m kind of a book nut. I couldn’t bring everything with me to New York, Mom’s car only holds so much and my room is smaller here than at home, but I have quite the library back in Stars Hollow.”

“What are you into?” asked Jess curiously, kind of amazed by this beautiful woman whose already-amazing blue eyes got three shades brighter when she talked about books.

“Sometimes I think it’s easier to list what I don’t like,” she admitted. “Let’s see, I have all the Russian classics, a whole lot of Dickens, Austen, complete works of Shakespeare, obviously. I get caught up in poetry sometimes, Dickinson is a favourite. I also like what you might call the less obvious stuff. Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead, Ginsberg’s Howl, the Mencken Chrestomathy...”

Jess got up so suddenly, Rory really thought she was boring him or maybe that he thought she was some kind of freak he needed to escape from, stat. She realised her mistake when he looked back at her and said, “C’mon.”

Rory was just a little wary when she realised she was following Jess to his bedroom, but the moment he opened the door so she could get a proper look inside, she realised why she was here.

“Wow!” she gasped at the sight that met her eyes.

Rory saw nothing of the mess on one side of the room, the unmade bed, the abandoned clothes, and such. All she could focus on was the books, the veritable library that existed on the near side of Jess’ room. He had shelves from floor to ceiling, row on row of books in every shape, style, and colour, more piled up on the floor that had no home in the system that seemed to exist on the shelves themselves.

“This is... This is amazing!” she told him, hands ghosting over the spines of Salinger, Vonnegut, and Hemingway.

“Believe me, there’d be more if I had the cash or the space,” said Jess, leaning by the door with is arms folded over his chest. “I was just thinking, if you left a lot of your collection behind, you can dip into mine. If you want.”

Rory nodded just to prove she heard him, but even her good manners couldn’t make her thank him yet as her eyes continued to move over the vast array of novels. This rivalled her own collection at home, no doubt about that, and she was being granted free access. It was incredible.

“You’d trust me with your books?” she said at last, looking positively agog as she met his eyes. “You only met me a couple of days ago.”

“We’re room-mates,” he said with a shrug. “You live right across the living room, I don’t think I have to worry about getting them back.”

Rory shook her head to come out of a book-induced daze and suddenly reached into her back pocket. She held out a wad of bills to Jess.

“Speaking of room-mates. First month's rent,” she explained. “I do give this to you, right? Or does Logan-”

“I’ll take it,” said Jess, retrieving the money from her hand. “Logan is... He’s not a bad guy, but for a person who grew up around a lot of this stuff, he doesn’t always handle it well,” he explained, shoving Rory’s rent into his pocket.

“I guess if you have a lot of it you don’t have to worry about spending it,” she considered. “Must be hard for him.”

“He deals.” Jess smirked. “His internet company has never entirely got off the ground, but Huntzberger gets points for guts and determination. In the meantime, he has a barista job at one of the fancier coffee joints, and on weekends he waits tables to keep up the cash flow for rent and his... extra-curriculars.”

Rory was about to ask what he meant by that when the apartment door opened with some force. Two voices could be heard, both laughing more than talking. One seemed to be Logan, the other was distinctly female.

“Talk of the devil,” Jess muttered as he exited the room

Rory followed quickly, not entirely surprised to find Logan with a woman hanging off his arm.

“Hey, guys!” he greeted them with a salute-type wave. “I see you’ve been making our new room-mate feel welcome, Jess,” he said with a look.

“He was showing me his books,” said Rory pointedly, wondering if Logan was implying what he seemed to be implying - she hoped not.

The girl to Logan’s left leaned in close and whispered something in his ear. If Rory had to bet, she would put all her money on it being something dirty. Also, if the leggy blonde was more than a college freshman it might just be a miracle.

“Well, Jess, you found yourself a fellow bookworm. That’s excellent.” Logan smiled widely. “So, in the words of The Bard himself, goodnight, parting is such sweet sorrow,” he said dramatically, opening the door to his room and ushering his ‘friend’ inside.

He followed and closed the door, apparently locking it. Rory wasn’t sure why he felt the need to. There was no way in hell she wanted to see what was happening in there.

“She seemed... nice,” said Rory stiffly.

“Yeah, definitely the highly intelligent type.” Jess smirked, unable to help it.

“I don’t think it’s her IQ she’s showing him.”

On that note, Rory went back to the couch and turned the volume on the TV up a couple of notches. Girlish giggling was already emanating from Logan’s room and she didn’t need to hear any more. The cushions shifted as Jess joined her once again.

“Does he do that a lot? Bring girls home?” she asked, eyes focused only on the television screen.

“Some. Not a lot,” said Jess, glancing between the TV and the side of her head since it was all he could see of her from here. “Does it bother you?”

“No, of course not. I mean, he’s an adult and this is his home, he can do whatever he wants in it. None of my business.”

Jess wasn’t sure what to make of her tone, but forgot to think about it when the noise from Logan’s room grew a little louder. Picking the remote out of Rory’s hand, he cranked the volume higher.

“So, you start your new job tomorrow, right?”

“I do, at the Times. Kind of a big deal.”

“I’m sure you’ll do great,” Jess assured her. “Place like that doesn’t employee just anybody. You must be a hell of a reporter.”

“I hope I am,” Rory admitted, looking as nervous as she felt, she was sure on that. “Guess we’ll find out tomorrow.”

She shared a smile with Jess and then settled in to watch TV a while. It was drowning out the noise from Logan’s room now, and it felt oddly comfortable to be sat here with Jess, just hanging out in her own place. Rory smiled thinking on that and of the collection of books in the next room.

“By the way,” she said, turning to look at Jess a moment, “thank you, for saying I can make use of your personal library,” she explained with a smile.

“No problem,” he assured her. “I can trust you to knock before entering, right?”

“Of course!” Rory exclaimed, just a little affronted that he would think otherwise, then she realised Jess was smirking again. “You really like to mess with me, don't you?”

“Hey, I'm giving you free access to all the books you can handle, I gotta get something out of it.”

Rory opened her mouth to retort but closed it again without ever saying a word. Somehow it seemed safer to put her eyes back on the TV and let her mind follow suit, before something got said that shouldn't. They were room-mates who had only known each other a couple of days. No need to complicate things, at least, not yet anyway.


	4. Chapter 4

Rory was being as quiet as possible as she made herself a cup of coffee and threw a Pop Tart into the toaster. She had managed to get up, get a shower, and get dressed all without disturbing her room-mates, but now here in the kitchen she had no choice but to make a certain amount of noise. Coffee machines did not run on silent, and the toaster was going to pop at any moment. She knew from the night before that the walls were fairly thin here, though thankfully Logan and his bed buddy seemed to have either found silent running or gone to sleep before she tried to get any shut-eye herself. There had been no theatrics since before ten p.m.

As her breakfast appeared, hot and sweet from the toaster, Rory flipped her strawberry treat onto a plate and turned to grab her coffee. Her new stiletto heels caught in a crack in the floor and she narrowly missed landing on her ass. The yelp that had escaped her didn’t seem to have woken anyone and she sighed with relief as she righted herself and got on with breakfast.

The sound of the front door opening caught her off guard. Rory rushed out into the living room, wondering who had managed to get up and leave without her hearing a thing. It was even more of a surprise when she realised Logan was coming into the apartment rather than heading out.

“Hi,” she greeted him, mindful of her volume since Jess was probably still in bed.

“Hey,” Logan replied in a similar tone, eyes running over the whole of Rory's body as a low whistle emanated from his lips. “Wow, very business woman of the year.” he said approvingly of her outfit.

Rory blushed, she couldn’t help it. “Thank you,” she said awkwardly, fastening the button on her jacket. “I, er... Well, it’s my first day at the paper. I want to make a good impression.”

“And I have no doubt you definitely will,” he assured her. “I’m sorry, if I thought about you being up this early I would’ve brought you home coffee and doughnuts or something.”

“It’s fine. Um, why are you up this early?” she asked curiously. “I thought you... er, I thought you had a friend over,” she said as diplomatically as possible, pointing in the general direction of Logan’s room.

“Who, Carol? Oh, she left around midnight, had to get back to her dorm before anybody missed her,” said Logan with a grin. “Me, I’m up before the birds three mornings a week. Gotta get across town for the first shift at the coffee shop. Y’know those commuters expect their espresso before they catch that early morning training.”

“I’ve heard that.” Rory nodded in understanding. “Jess mentioned you worked at a coffee shop, and a diner.”

“He did? Well, we both do what we can to get by,” he said, yawning into his hand right after. “I’m sorry, Rory, but I need to get back to my bed for a couple of hours. Good luck with the new job, okay?”

“Thanks,” she said with a smile as he headed to his room.

Rory was just about to step back into the kitchen when she heard Logan speak again.

“And hey, I’m sorry if I came off a little hostile last night,” he apologised. “It was a surprise to see you coming out of Jess’ room is all.”

“Like I said, he was showing me his books, that’s all. No offence to your friend Carol but I’m not really the type to just dive right into a guy’s bed when I just met him.”

Maybe she was being just a little judgemental and unfair, but Logan didn’t look mad at Rory. Actually his slightly startled expression soon grew into a wide smile, almost as if she had impressed him. She wasn’t sure what to make of that.

“Have a great day, Ace Reporter,” he told her with a wave, before finally disappearing into his room.

Rory shook her head, laughing a little. She really wasn’t sure what to make of that guy, of either guy that she was living with, truth be told, but somehow she had a feeling she was going to be okay here.

“But right now, work,” she reminded herself, getting back to the kitchen so she could finish up breakfast.

She needed to head out within the next five minutes if she was going to make it to work on time. As much as she loved the idea of being a real journalist at last, Rory was pretty sure she had never been this nervous in her whole entire life!

* * *

It was coincidence more than anything else that led Jess and Logan to the kitchen at the same time. While Jess had been out of bed for a couple of hours, earbuds in as he tried to wrangle the next chapter of his second novel into shape, Logan had crashed out for a while, catching up on sleep he would have got last night if not for the lovely Carol.

“Hey, man,” said Jess, barely looking up from the pan that contained bacon and eggs. “You want breakfast?”

“It’s almost eleven, so technically, that’s brunch,” said Logan, rubbing his eyes.

Jess smirked. “Never have quite knocked the penthouse out of you, have we?”

“And you never will. I’m headed back there, Mariano. Better get used to it.”

“Whatever you say.”

Moving to the refrigerator, Jess grabbed two more eggs. He had no problem making extra food and sharing with his room-mate. It was the kind of thing they did all the time.

“So, Rory,” said Logan, leaning lazily in the doorway. “She seems settled in already.”

“Not exactly like she needs a floor plan to find her way around here,” Jess shrugged, pouring out two glasses of orange juice and handing one to his friend.

Logan nodded his thanks and took a sip. “You two are gonna be book buddies, huh?”

“Apparently. It’s not like we’re gonna lose you in a literary conversation,” Jess pointed out as he served up breakfast (he was not calling it brunch, ever). “In fact she was talking The Fountainhead last night. You know my thoughts on Ayn Rand - she was a political nut.”

“Clearly our Rory appreciates the forty page monologue,” said Logan with a smile. “That’s impressive, as was the way she looked in her business-like suit this morning.”

“Huh.”

Jess refused to say more than that. He wasn’t all that surprised to hear that next to complimenting Rory’s intellect, Logan was quick to follow up with a comment on her looks. It wasn’t as if Jess hadn’t noticed how easy on the eye their new room-mate was. Rory was in no way bad to look at. Despite the fact she claimed to eat anything and everything, her figure didn’t show it, and she had the most beautiful blue eyes. Jess shook his head when he realised what he was thinking, and followed Logan through to the living room. His friend was already in the arm chair with his feet up on the coffee table, so Jess dropped down onto the couch and they both ate.

“I’m sorry if I came off kinda harsh last night, man,” said Logan around a mouthful of bacon. “I know we had a deal about Rory. I wasn’t trying to accuse you.”

“Forget it,” Jess told him, swallowing his mouthful of eggs. “But speaking of girls in the bedroom for just that reason, had last night’s conquest even graduated?”

“High school? Of course,” said Logan definitely, with a wicked smirk.

Jess shook his head. “You’re playing with fire, man.”

“Yes, because you’re such a saint when it comes to women.” Logan rolled his eyes. “That girl you dated last year, for what? Two months? Maybe more? Did you ever learn her last name?”

“That wasn’t dating,” said Jess definitely. “Shane was just...”

“A sex object?” Logan suggested.

Jess narrowed his eyes, but he couldn’t deny it. Honestly, that was probably the most apt description for his ‘girlfriend’ of the time. He didn’t care about her, and no, he didn’t know her last name at all. She was just around when he was in a bad place, when getting laid on a regular basis helped with the pain, helped to silence the mess in his head that seemed impossible to escape any other way than with booze and a warm body to grab onto. It was a time he would rather not think about.

“You working at the diner later?” he asked Logan, knowing the only way out of this was a distinct subject change.

“Not 'til late,” his friend confirmed, knowing better than to try to go back to their previous conversation. “I gotta go see my programming guy today.”

“When are you gonna let that internet thing just lay down and die?” asked Jess with a sigh.

“I don’t know, when are you gonna stop pushing your book into the face of every bookstore owner in the city?” countered Logan.

They both smiled. It was all good-natured, no malice involved. At the end of the day, they were best friends, almost brothers after everything they had gone through together. It was easy to push each other’s buttons after more than five years as room-mates and buddies, but Jess and Logan rarely fought, verbally or otherwise. Neither of them wanted to start now.

When they were done eating, Logan grabbed a shower and Jess piled the dishes in the sink. He would clean them up later, for now he wanted to get back to his writing for a little while before he headed out for his shift at Wal-Mart. Since Logan was headed out almost immediately for his meeting, it gave Jess the chance to escape the confines of his room a while and set up with his laptop in the living room. The words started to flow and easily filled several pages. Unfortunately, he got so into the rhythm of his work, he stopped watching the clock. When his phone beeped on the table, he leaned over to see a text from a work buddy asking where the hell he was.

With a string of curse words escaping his lips, Jess leapt from the couch, put his computer back in his room, and got ready to leave. Seconds before he ran out of the door, he had a thought and dashed back to his room. One last task completed in thirty seconds or less, he was then out of the door and gone in a flash.

* * *

Rory arrived home from her first day of work, exhausted but happy. The paper was so full-on, which she had expected, but it was perhaps even more intense than she had anticipated on her very first day.

Unlocking the apartment door and pushing her way inside, a bag of celebratory take-out and a bottle of wine in her hands, she called out to see who was home. When no answer came, her smile slipped some.

“Jess? Logan?” she tried again, knocking on both their doors.

She had to assume that no reply, and no sounds anywhere in the whole place, meant she was alone. Trudging over to the couch, Rory put her purse, the food and wine down on the seat and then headed for her room in the silence. She had really wanted to talk through her day with the guys and celebrate the beginning of her new life with at least one of them. Apparently, that wasn't going to happen.

Deciding maybe she would call her mom instead and just crash out with the food and booze by herself, Rory went to kick her shoes off into her room when she noticed something on her bed that hadn’t been there before. A bright green sticky note was attached to the front of a fairly thin book with a very dark cover. Frowning, she picked up said book and read the note aloud.

“'Rory, hope you had a good first day. Call this a ‘welcome to the apartment’ gift. Jess'.”

Removing the sticky note, Rory read the title and author of the book, smiling widely when she realised what it said. The Subsect, by Jess Mariano. Okay, so maybe he wasn’t there to celebrate with her right now, but that was okay. He was probably working, and maybe Logan was too. It was nice just knowing one of them had thought of her today and left her such a special gift.

With her cell in one hand and the book in the other, Rory went back to the couch, made herself comfortable with her food to hand and called Lorelai. They could talk over her first day and then later hopefully she could catch up with her room-mates. Rory was smiling at the thought, remembering at the last minute she was going to need a glass for her wine and dodging into the kitchen. She sighed and blew hair off her forehead when she saw all the dishes piled in the sink. Maybe living with room-mates, especially male ones, had its downsides.

“Nobody’s perfect,” she said to herself, just as Lorelai picked up the phone.

“Says who? Pretty sure you and I are darn close, babe.”

Rory laughed, but she didn’t like to deny it. Well, who would?


	5. Chapter 5

Rory hadn’t exactly been worried about living with two guys, not after she met and got to know Jess and Logan even a little bit. She was fine in the company of either or both of them, or so she thought. The problem really wasn’t spending time with them, the problem was more that she barely saw them at all.

With her working all day and the guys working various shifts, that often seemed to occur very early or very late, there was seldom a time when all three of them were in the apartment at the same time and awake. It was rare for even two of them to cross paths as far as Rory could tell, unless the guys were meeting up each day whilst she was at work in order to talk about her, but she doubted it.

It wasn’t as if Rory needed them to be her constant companions. Jess and Logan had lives of their own, not just jobs but outside interests, and she assumed friends as well. In this first week of living together, they sure seemed to be out of the apartment a lot whenever she was home, and it made her a little sad. Calling her mom, Lane, and Paris to talk about her working day was all very well, but it was a little impractical on a daily basis. Rory would like to be able to get to know Jess and Logan better and share with them, she just didn’t seem to get the opportunity.

When a second Friday morning dawned and Rory once again rose early for work, she was surprised to hear the shower running in the bathroom and then to find Jess in the kitchen.

“Wow. Don’t tell me we’re all here and all awake at the same time,” she said, glancing from the kitchen doorway to the bathroom and back. “I was starting to think if that ever happened the world would implode.”

“And good morning to you too, Rory,” said Jess, grabbing a third cup and pouring out a healthy measure of coffee. “I guess it is a little like ships passing in the night lately. How’re things?”

“Everything’s fine,” she assured him with a smile, and a thank you for her coffee when he handed it to her. “I wasn’t... I know you guys have lives, it’s not like I need you to be around all the time to baby-sit me or whatever. I just thought it might be nice to spend some time together at some point. Y’know, to get to know each other better? I wondered if you and Logan might wanna have dinner or something this weekend? My treat, like a dawn of a new era in the living situation thing. That sounded better in my head,” she noted, sipping her coffee with a frown all over her face.

Jess smirked. “We can all hang out sometime if that’s what you want. You shouldn’t blow money you don’t have on dinner though. We can eat and talk here just as easy, plus nobody needs a cab to get home.”

“Good thinking,” Rory agreed, nodding her head. “But I’ll still buy dinner, take out, whatever you want, and beers. Guys like beer, right?”

“We don’t hate it,” Jess told her, still smiling. “You want breakfast?” he asked then, gesturing to the pans already on the stove.

“Er, I’m more of a Pop Tart kind of a girl,” she admitted, sliding by him to the toaster so she could get her food.

There wasn’t a whole lot of room in the kitchen. Just the two of them moving around each other meant being in pretty close quarters, and then suddenly there was three when Logan appeared in the doorway.

“Hey, Rory. I’m sorry,” he apologised, holding up a bottle in his hand. “I grabbed the wrong thing in the shower and used the last of your shampoo. I’ll replace it, obviously.”

“No. Um, no problem. I mean, um, it’s fine, I have more in the cabinet,” she rattled out, barely taking in the words Logan was saying, certainly not seeing the bottle he was waving in her general direction.

Much like Jess a couple of weeks ago, Logan seemed to think it was perfectly fine to come wandering out of the bathroom in a state of undress. It was what they were used to, Rory supposed, being two guys that rarely had company over unless said company was sharing their bed anyway. The glimpse she got of Jess’ body before had been enough to make her blush terribly. Faced with Logan, similarly well-built and glistening with water as he was, now blocking the only exit from the room, Rory was sure her head was about to boil over and explode.

The toaster popped making Rory jump. She grabbed her breakfast from it and with an overly loud ‘excuse me’ all but ran past Logan back to her room. Jess watched her go, eyes widening some at the display. Logan laughed.

“Wow. She’s, er... she’s a little skittish, huh?”

“Apparently,” said Jess absently as he finished making breakfast. “You wanna put on some clothes before you eat? I’d like my food to stay down.”

“You’re just jealous, man,” said Logan with a grin.

“Please!” Jess rolled his eyes, though he had to admit, if only to himself, he didn’t like the idea of Rory being affected by Logan that way.

It wasn’t jealousy as such. He knew he looked good enough with his clothes off too. Besides, they were not in competition for Rory’s affection anyway. They were all room-mates here, all trying to get along and live together like buddies. There was not going to be any romance, no sex, nothing of the kind. It was a deal made before Rory ever even came to view the room she was now renting, and it wasn’t changing any time soon. Sometimes Jess just got a little tired of Logan thinking he was God’s gift to women. Maybe one day Huntzberger would grow up and realise there was a little more to life than notches on a bed post, though honestly, Jess doubted it somehow.

It was still disappointing that Logan had walked in when he did. Jess hadn’t really had a chance to talk to Rory properly since her second night in the apartment and he was wondering about her opinion on The Subsect. She thanked him for the gift, blushing furiously when she explained that it was just the sweetest thing anyone had done for her in a while. He told her to read it first before she got too jazzed about the gift and she had promised to let him know what she thought the moment she was done. He had to assume either she hadn’t read it yet or she just hated. Somehow, coming from her, either thing would probably sting, but Jess wasn’t sure he could really explain why.

* * *

It was physically impossible for Rory Gilmore to turn down coffee. She was almost certain it was written right there into her genetic code, as sure as her eyes were blue and her ability to play sports was zero. When a couple of her fellow reporters offered to show her the best coffee place in town after work, she was there in an instant, even though heading home to crash out would have suited her better. She needed to be social as much as she liked the idea of a caffeine hit. It was about time she had friends in New York that weren’t the guys she lived with, and where better to start in finding buddies but at her place of work?

“This place has the most amazing Colombian roast!” said Marnie with real enthusiasm. “Makes no difference to this guy with his caramel vented decaf latte crap,” she continued, rolling her eyes as she gestured to her friend, “but trust me, you’re the hard-core caffeine type, you’ll understand.”

“I happen to like my organs to function at regular speed, Marn,” said Philip dramatically. “Some of us don’t want to die before we’re forty.”

Their stand-off continued in dirty hand gestures and faked evil looks. Rory found the whole thing hilarious. It was so obvious that Marnie and Philip loved each other, but also loved to drive each other crazy. They were very brother and sister that way. Rory had said as much. Apparently, Phil’s partner, Damon, quite agreed.

“See, I thought the usual convention when getting out of work on Friday night is to go drink at the bar, not the coffee shop,” said Rory as they joined the line to the counter. “Not that I’m complaining, I mean, I’m all for the coffee...”

“Oh we can party with the best of them!” Marnie insisted, sounding a little less than party-like with her crisp English accent, “but, darling, work for The Times just doesn’t end at five on Friday. You’re new, make the most of your freedom. When you’re being assigned more stories than a human being can possibly handle, you’ll be spending weekends in the same haze of stress and coffee you spend all the other days!”

“Don’t scare her, Marn,” Phillip admonished. “Now, Rory, what’s your poison?” he asked, pulling her up next to him at the counter.

She looked up at the choices she could select from, but only for a moment. Her attention was quickly taken by a familiar voice, attached to a very familiar face.

“Hey, roomie,” said Logan with a grin that was forever infectious. “Fancy seeing you here.”

“Hi!” Rory reacted with surprise. “Um, hey, I... I didn’t know this was your coffee shop. Not that it’s your coffee shop obviously...”

“I got it,” he said, nodding in understanding. “So, what can I get for you and your friends?”

Rory felt more than a little awkward. Logan looked different in his standard issue apron and unflattering hat, and yet he was still smiling that winning smile, in spite of how embarrassing this situation was. He was her room-mate, her friend, and now he was serving her coffee in front of her work colleagues. Awkward didn’t even begin to cover what she was feeling, and yet, Logan seemed mostly unphased.

“Um, I, er... Marnie?” she said, turning to her friend. “You pick for both of us.”

Marnie did as asked and ordered Phillip’s drink too. It seemed forever for them to get their beverages, pay their money, and finally move away from the counter. Philip was frowning as he looked between Rory and the barista several times.

“Did he call you roomie?” he checked. “As in you live with that fine piece of ass?”

Rory wasn’t sure whether to laugh or be scandalised by her friends description of Logan. In the end both reactions kind of appeared at once.

“Yes, I live with Logan, but it’s not how it sounds,” she explained as they all three sat down around a table.

“Then I think you should tell us exactly how it is, Miss Gilmore, and quickly,” said Marnie, looking back at Logan with a grin a mile wide. “He doesn’t play for Phil’s team, does he?”

“No, no. Logan is very much leaning towards the womenfolk, but he and I aren’t... It’s all platonic. I only met him a week ago. He and Jess, they’re pretty much best friends. They needed a room-mate, I needed a room, so it worked out.”

“So Jess is gay?” Marnie guessed, “or she’s related to... Logan, was it?”

“Yes, Logan, but no, Jess is not gay... that I know of,” she said, giving it due consideration and realising that wasn’t a conversation they ever had. “But Jess is also not a she. He’s a he, a guy. He and Logan are best guy friends who room together, and I’m the third room-mate.”

Rory thought back over what she just said and realised that as inarticulate as it may have been, she had at least put her friends straight on all the facts by the end of her final sentence.

“Right then.” Marnie nodded once. “So is it that Logan’s the hot one and Jess is the funny one, or what?” she asked. “Because pardon me for the cliché, but that’s usually how it works, right?”

“Well, yeah, I guess, usually,” Rory considered, taking a long sip of her coffee and momentarily forgetting what she was saying - this blend was so good! “Um, but Logan and Jess are both nice guys, neither one lacking in the looks or personality departments. We’re all friends.”

“Friends, sure,” said Philip, craning his neck for another good look at Logan. “I’d be his friend,” he said in such a way that Rory couldn’t help but laugh.

“Hmm, no offence to the boy, but I aim a little higher than barista,” said Marnie, sipping her drink. “Of course, it is fun to go slumming once in a while.”

Rory wasn’t sure how she felt about her friend being described in those terms. She knew that was just the way Marnie talked, the way her sense of humour worked and all, but Rory wasn’t one hundred percent used to it yet. She wondered if she would ever adjust to being okay with her talking that way about other people. She hoped so, because in all other ways, Marnie was really cool.

“Hello, ladies and gentleman,” said Logan as he suddenly appeared at the table. “Pastries, compliments of the house,” he declared, placing the selection down on the table.

Rory opened her mouth to say ‘thank you’ and Logan tipped her a wink. Somehow she had a feeling the boss didn’t know about the food, and that maybe Logan was paying for them himself to be kind to her. It made her feel even worse about what Marnie had said, even if Logan couldn’t possibly have heard.

“Thank you,” she told him, “and I’m sorry,” she added under her breath, sure her new friends wouldn’t know about it since they were already bickering over who was going to get which Danish.

“Don’t apologise. I’m used to people thinking they’re better than me these days,” he promised her. “It was an adjustment, but it’s fine. One day I’m going to be back on top, then how dumb will they feel?”

Rory smiled because he was smiling. It was pretty much impossible not to find that particular look on Logan’s face infectious.

“Oh, did Jess mention about dinner tomorrow night?” she checked, grabbing his sleeve when he tried to get away. “You’ll be around for a room-mate night in, right?”

“Sure, sounds great,” Logan agreed. “Sorry, Ace, but I really have to get back to work.”

He moved quickly back to the counter and Rory looked to her friends, both of whom were now staring at her.

“What?”

“Purely platonic, eh?” said Marnie with an eyebrow raised.

“Yes,” insisted Rory. “Absolutely.”

“Does he know that?” Phillip grinned.

Rory felt the blush rising in her cheeks and tried to hide it in her coffee. Still, she was looking forward to dinner in her new apartment with her two room-mates tomorrow night. She had a feeling it was going to be good friend-type fun, no matter what her new buddies from work liked to imply. Neither Logan nor Jess were attracted to her, and Rory liked them purely as friends also. It was the way it was going to stay too, and that was just final.


	6. Chapter 6

Rory felt a little self-conscious about Saturday Night Dinner. She had to wonder if the great Emily Gilmore ever felt this way when preparing Friday Night Dinner back when it was a weekly event for the family, but she doubted it. Her grandma was born and raised for dinner parties. Rory on the other hand was raised for movie nights and Around the World Night at Al’s. Not that a night in with her new room-mates needed to be stylish or particularly special. Rory wasn’t about to say that Jess and Logan didn’t have class, but they were way more Styrofoam and plastic than china and crystal. Rory supposed that was the kind of world Logan came from originally, but he sure had adjusted to being a little less fancy since he went out on his own, Rory had learnt that very quickly. Probably came from not having staff to clean up after him anymore.

When Jess came in from work, he was actually on the phone to Logan. Rory looked up when she heard the door and then his voice.

“That’s cool, man. Yeah, I’ll tell her,” he said, before hanging up the phone and addressing Rory. “Logan’s running a little late.”

“I thought he would be here before you,” said Rory with a frown. “He said he got off work an hour earlier than you did today.”

“He did.” Jess nodded. “But speaking of getting off...”

He let the sentence just hang there and Rory didn’t take long to catch on. The look on her face proved that she got it but was completly underwhelmed at the idea, or maybe it was just by the way Jess had phrased it. Either way, Logan was clearly not going to be getting home for a while yet.

“He did say we should go ahead and order food without him,” explained Jess, going over to his room and opening the door. He literally threw his jacket and Wal-Mart vest in there, then returned to the couch, running his hands through his hair. “Logan’s not so picky about what he eats and since you’re paying, you should really pick the place at least.”

“Oh, well, I would, but I’m still not exactly sure on what are the best places and I don’t have any menus, which I probably should’ve thought of sooner...” Rory began to ramble, something Jess had noticed she did a lot, especially when she got nervous - it was so cute.

“That drawer right there,” he said, gesturing to the spot in front of her.

Rory leaned down and pulled the drawer out from under the coffee table only to find it full of take-out menus.

“Wow. This is just like being at home,” she noted, pulling them out into her lap. “Except Mom and me have a colour coded system and... Yeah, that sounds crazy to you.”

“Not really.” Jess shook his head. “Actually, that’s probably not a bad idea.”

“So, any of these places are good?” asked Rory, sifting through the menus.

“Not all of them,” said Jess getting up and coming over.

He was perched on the edge of the arm chair and leaning awfully close. Rory wasn’t sure if she felt self-conscious or if the bigger concern was that she didn’t. Jess fingers brushed hers as he sorted through the menus both in her hands and in her lap, and he didn’t even flinch. Rory decided she was being dumb, shook her head and paid attention to what he was saying.

“If we’re looking at my personal favourites, you’ve got your American diner, your Chinese, and your Italian. Of course, if you want to go a little crazy, we have Thai, Mexican, or if you’re happy to burn the apartment down afterwards, Indian.”

“I could go for pizza, if that’s cool with you?”

“Pizza’s always cool with me,” said Jess with a smile.

Rory wasn’t sure why but it felt like the sun coming out when he did that, just smiled that certain way. Somehow she got the feeling he didn’t do a whole lot of smiling most of the time, but maybe she was wrong. She liked it anyway.

“Um, so we should order,” she said, snapping out of her second daze in as many minutes, “or maybe you should since you know what you want and what Logan wants?”

“You sure?” asked Jess, taking the Italian menu from her hands. “I mean, this is your night, you’re paying for it.”

“Please, pick whatever you want. Just make sure you order me the largest margarita with extra cheese that they have, with a side of spicy wedges and a 40oz Coke.”

“Okay then,” said Jess, eyes widening throughout the entirety of her order.

Rory did not look like the kind of girl who could eat that much food, and yet the first night she was here he had seen her munch through a burger, fries, and more faster than most guys he knew ever could. Looks really could be deceiving, he thought, watching her head for kitchen. She was saying something about beers in the fridge and Jess made himself listen and answer her with thanks before making the call for the food. He was just hanging up when Logan burst in through the door.

“Hey, now that’s what I call a welcome home,” he said, encountering Rory as she emerged from the kitchen with open beers in her hands.

“Good timing,” she said, handing over one bottle and then moving to give Jess the other.

Logan took a good long swig of his drink and conferred with Jess on what food had been ordered on his behalf before heading for his room. He called to Rory that he would be back in five just as she came back from the kitchen again, this time carrying a wad of paper napkins and a glass of juice.

“So, you don’t drink?” asked Jess curiously. “I mean, you bought beers but didn’t take one, and you had me order you a Coke so...”

“I drink,” Rory nodded. “Sometimes, when I feel like it.”

“Hey, I’m not judging” Jess assured her, hands held up in mock surrender. “Just playing the getting to know you game, which is why we’re here, right?”

“Right,” Rory agreed, joining him on the couch. “I’m sorry, didn’t mean to come off all defensive.”

“No problem.”

There was a moment’s companionable silence that soon stretched into something a little less comfortable. Jess considered asking more questions but wasn’t really sure where to start and really didn’t want to put Rory on the spot. Putting on the TV wasn’t going to help since they were gathered here to talk and all. It was weird how Jess almost wished Logan was back in the room already. That guy could run his mouth like nobody else and never ran out of things to say, even if what he was saying wasn’t particularly smart or relevant all of the time.

“So...” said Rory after a while, a comment or question clearly waiting to emerge when Logan finally did return from his room.

“Okay, I am all set for this room-mate gathering,” he said, clapping his hands together. “Rory, you are a peach for buying the food.”

“No problem,” she told him with a smile, reuniting him with his beer as he dropped down into the armchair and made himself comfortable. “It’s actually just nice to get the chance to spend a little time with you guys. I mean, a whole week and we’re barely spent ten minutes all together. It’d be great to know a little more about you.”

“As it would to know a little more about you,” said Logan definitely. “Hey, how’s the job going, Miss Ace Reporter?”

“Oh, it’s good. It’s... challenging, I guess, but I’m loving it,” she explained with a grin. “I’m bottom of the pile right now, but some day... Well, the dream is to be the next Christianne Amanpour.”

“You wanna be an overseas correspondent?” said Jess, just a little surprised to hear it, though he didn’t let it show.

“Hopefully, someday.” Rory nodded. “For now, it all seems a long way off, but I love The Times and I’m happy for any break I can get.”

“Well, you sure seem to be making interesting friends there,” said Logan with a look.

Rory blushed terribly and Jess looked between her and a grinning Logan trying to figure out why. In the end it got the better of him and he asked what he was missing.

“Oh, Phillip and Marnie, colleagues from the Times, they took me out for coffee after work yesterday,” explained Rory.

“And of all the coffee shops in all of NYC, she had to walk into mine.” Logan smirked.

Jess looked underwhelmed. “Huh.”

“Yeah, and I’m sorry, again, for Marnie,” Rory said to Logan. “She’s a great person, really, she’s just a little... judgemental, I guess? I don’t think she means to be rude, or maybe she does, it’s only been a few days and sometimes I’m not the greatest judge of character.”

“She was fine, Ace. Don’t stress about it,” he told her, literally waving away her concerns. “Though next time she comes in I might name drop my father and see how many colours she turns.”

“That’s mean!” said Rory, apparently shocked, and yet she was grinning the very next moment. “But do it, she does kind of deserve it.”

Logan laughed loudly. “You’re my kind of woman, Rory Gilmore,” he told her, leaning over to clink his bottle against her glass, then draining the rest of the beer in a moment. “Mind if I get another one of these?”

“Help yourself, there’s plenty in the fridge.”

“Jess?” said Logan, gesturing with the empty bottle.

“I’m good,” his room-mate assured him, still sipping at his own beer.

He only realised after he said it that his tone came out a little clipped. Jess didn’t mean anything by it and hoped Logan didn’t notice. He wasn’t even sure he could explain what his problem was if somebody asked him, so it was probably best that nobody had.

“So, the job is good. You homesick at all?” he asked Rory conversationally.

“A little,” she considered, shifting in her seat to face him, “but I kind of got used to being away when I was following Obama around.”

“Where you from, Rory?” asked Logan as he returned, suddenly realising that he never asked before.

“Connecticut,” she said, turning back the other way as she spoke to him. “A quirky little town just outside of Hartford, called Stars Hollow.”

“Sounds like something out of an Andy Hardy movie,” said Jess with a smirk.

“I guess it is a little bit like that,” Rory agreed, knowing that was as good a description of the place as any she ever heard before.

A buzz on the intercom got her attention then. Rory was sure it would be the food and leapt up to answer the call. After all, she was paying and she would take no arguments on that. She was smiling as she grabbed her cash and went to the door to let in the pizza guy when he got to their floor. So far this evening was going pretty well, and she hoped it continued to do so.


	7. Chapter 7

“So, you guys are both New York born and raised?”

Rory’s words were a little garbled thanks to a mouthful of food. Usually she would have better manners but her pizza was just so good. She supposed she was settling in comfortably with the guys a little too easily also. They had manners, but were not adverse to making a mess, talking whilst eating, or wiping greasy fingers on their jeans.

“Actually, I’m from your part of the world,” said Logan, taking a swig of his beer. “Mitchum and Shira settled down in Connecticut a while back when they put me in Yale.”

“That’s the Ivy League college, not a fancy way of saying jail,” said Jess with a smirk.

“Actually, prison might’ve been preferable,” Logan considered, rolling is eyes. “Me and higher education, not a great mix,” he told Rory.

“You went to Yale?” she asked, eyes wide as anything as she held her slice of pizza without taking any notice of it, at least until the sauce started to drip onto the table. “Shoot!” she declared, grabbing napkins to clean up the mess.

Logan tried not to laugh and failed. “It’s a cheap coffee table, Ace, don’t panic,” he advised. “And yes, I did go to Yale, for a while anyway. Sophomore year, well, it kinda didn’t take. Long story short, I dropped out. Mitchum pitched the biggest fit of his life, told me it was his way or the highway. I took the highway,” he said with a shrug.

“Yeah, right down the I95 to New York to make my life miserable,” Jess supplied, his poker face failing at the last when his buddy threw a napkin at his head.

“You would hate your life without me in it!” he declared. “Mariano here was flailing until I came along.”

“You’re kidding!” countered Jess. “No way would you have survived this long in the city without me.”

Rory watched the volley of teasing insults with amusement. She figured this was what it was like to have siblings, not that she would know for sure. Nobody close to her had brothers or sisters, not her mom or Lane or Paris. It was nice to see two guys that got along so well like this, that had each other’s back when clearly their real family didn’t care enough.

“I think it’s cool that you found each other,” she declared happily.

“You make us sound like a bad romance novel,” said Jess, making a face. “For the record, I don’t play for that team.”

“I wasn’t suggesting you did.” Rory rolled her eyes. “And we all know Logan likes girls.”

“Women, Rory,” he corrected her. “Not girls, women.” 

“Really?” she checked, one eyebrow raised. “Come back to me when the average age of your conquests is over twenty one”, she said smartly.

Her smile took the potential sting out the barb she threw, but Jess found the whole thing pretty hilarious. Even Logan couldn’t help but smile. Rory Gilmore had a spine, and he didn’t hate that. Sometimes the easy ones were boring, the chicks that fawned over him because he had looks and charm, or even because his last name was Huntzberger. Rory had standards and she wasn’t afraid to say what she thought. That was a good quality in any person, male or female, but particularly alluring to Logan when it came packaged in a figure like that, with dancing blue eyes and a wave of silken hair. Not that he was going to try anything with Rory. He and Jess had a deal on that and he was sticking to it.

“Anyway, what I meant to say,” said Rory, mostly wanting to just move the conversation along and stop Logan staring so intensely at her, “was that it’s cool that you guys aren’t each alone, fending for yourself. You have back up. I don’t have personal experience of siblings, but you two are kind of like brothers, right?”

“I guess.” Jess shrugged. “I don’t know, I never had family to know what that’s like.”

“I have a sister, but Honor is under strict instructions not to talk to me,” said Logan. “Don’t get me wrong, we still do see each other, but it’s not the same when you’re the leper of the family.”

“I’m sorry,” said Rory with genuine sympathy.

Perhaps she was even feeling a little sorry for her comments about Logan’s love life earlier. He seemed unmoved by any of it. The smile remained, almost as if it were drawn onto his face with permanent marker. It made Rory wonder how genuine it could be if that were the case, and how sad he might really be underneath.

“Never be sorry, Ace,” he told her easily. “I’m doing just fine here, with my brother from another mother,” he said pointedly.

“And father, thank God,” added Jess. “Although I think I’d trade Liz for just about anybody.”

“You don’t get along with your mother,” said Rory, more recalling what Jess had told her before than actually asking about it. “That’s why you went out on your own so young.”

“Something like that,” he agreed, tossing a piece of unwanted pizza crust back into the box. “Logan dropped out of college, I didn’t even finish out high school,” he explained.

“It can’t be because you weren’t smart enough,” Rory said with certainty.

Jess smiled at the compliment, he couldn’t help it. “I could’ve passed. Got my GED in the end anyway, but... school just wasn’t for me. I never really saw the point of it anyway. Then Liz switched boyfriends my Senior Year. He was a piece of work and we really, really didn’t see eye to eye,” he said with a look. “I got out, never looked back.”

It was all so sad, Rory thought. Here were two really nice guys with everything to recommend them, and yet they were so unhappy. Sure, on the outside they seemed okay. Jess didn’t smile as much as Logan, but he usually seemed pretty upbeat and okay about life. They had each other, the brother thing, as Rory had noted, but their parents hadn’t been all they should be. Life sure had dealt them both a bum hand in ways that Rory took for granted in her own life.

“You guys make me feel so lucky,” she said aloud. “Not that I don’t already know how lucky I am to have my mom, my grandparents, my friends and all, but... Well, it’s easy to forget sometimes, that some people aren’t so lucky.”

She was looking at Jess when she said it, mostly because he was the last one to speak, but when their eyes met Rory really couldn’t look away. He seemed to be trying to see right through her, his gaze was that intense. It made her shiver all over, but not in a way she minded at all.

“Hey, don’t feel bad for us, Ace,” said Logan then, tearing her attention away from Jess all of a sudden. “We do just fine. Sure, it’s not exactly fun waiting tables and everything, but that’s just to pay the bills until we make it big. My company takes off, Jess’ book gets picked up by some big publishing house, and we’re both headed for the penthouse.”

“Separate penthouses, hopefully,” said Jess with a smirk.

Rory smiled. “Well, if you guys don’t make it then there is something up with the universe. I think you deserve only good things.”

“I will drink to that,” said Logan, raising his beer bottle towards her.

Rory pushed her paper cup against it and waited for Jess to join in before they all said ‘cheers’ and drank.

“So, what’s left to know about you, Ace?” asked Logan as he drained his third beer. “I mean, you come from a small town and you have lofty ambitions to become the next Christianne Amanpour, which personally I think you can definitely achieve,” he told her, grinning. “What about the in-between?

“In-between?” she asked. “Um, well, I actually went to Yale too, except I didn’t drop out. Class of 2007.”

“Wow,” said Logan, staring intently at her. “If I'd stayed, I would’ve been Class of 2006. Hey, we could’ve been friends. Isn’t that crazy?”

“The craziest.” Rory nodded. “I don’t know though, you probably wouldn’t have wanted to hang out with me, the shy little Freshman. I’ll bet for as long as you were there you were the big man on campus type.”

“I don’t like to brag.”

Jess almost spat beer everywhere at the sound of that remark, so giant was his scoffing at it. Logan would’ve ignored him if not for the fact it was kind of hilarious to see his buddy struggle to breathe. Rory looked so worried and started rubbing Jess’ back on instinct. When he recovered, Logan showed no sympathy through his laughter.

“Instant karma, man,” he told Jess with a look.

“Whatever,” he replied, shaking his head. “You not liking to brag will happen the day Satan skates to work.”

Rory bit her lip so she didn’t laugh too. It was all pretty amusing.

“So, you graduated Yale,” Jess said to her then. “Then a year following Obama around, and now The Times?”

“Yup, that’s the timeline.” Rory nodded. “Nothing else to tell really.”

“And in this timeline of dedicated hard work, integrity, and education, you have any company at all?” asked Logan curiously. “I mean, is there a Richie Cunnigham type we should know about? One that might come calling on a Saturday night to take you to the Sock Hop?”

Rory blushed crimson. It was adorable and both guys thought so. Unfortunately, neither felt bad enough about her embarrassment to apologise for it, or for Logan to take back the question. Both he and Jess seemed to want to know if Rory was single, even with their pact not to date her in full effect.

“Um, no,” she said at length, trying to hide behind her hair and in her Coke at the same time. “No boyfriend.”

“Girlfriend?” Logan checked, at which Rory’s eyes widened. “Just asking!” he said, hands held up in mock surrender in case she was offended.

“No,” Rory confirmed. “No offence to the LGBT community, but I am not one of their number. I’ve dated guys. One serious in high school, a couple less serious in college. Since then... I don’t know, I guess I’ve just been... busy,” she told them, feeling so lame just admitting it.

“Nobody’s judging,” said Jess definitely.

“Absolutely not,” Logan agreed, getting up to head for the kitchen. “Anybody want?” he checked, gesturing with his empty beer bottle.

Rory and Jess confirmed they didn’t and Logan was soon back in his seat with yet another beer. The conversation took a back seat to more eating, but that didn’t last long since the food was practically gone anyway. Mostly, Rory just didn’t know what to say after revealing even scant details of her love life. It felt strange to talk to guys about other guys she dated, but she supposed she would get used to it in time. She wondered if some day she would come to feel as if Jess and Logan were her brothers too, and yet when she took a long look at each of them in turn, she knew that was never going to happen, not for as long as they looked this good.

Conversation started up again soon enough as Logan recalled owing Jess money for the cable bill and handed over bills from his pocket. That led to them all talking about movies, and a debate over what qualified as a classic. It was a ridiculous discussion in which nobody was ever going to completely agree, but Rory found the whole thing almost too much fun.

Eventually, it was decided that at least a couple of their debated movies required further viewing before a verdict could be reached. It was how they all ended up watching Die Hard 2 at midnight, and it was no real surprise for Jess to look over and realise that Logan had fallen asleep in the armchair. It didn’t bother him at all, and what he cared about even less was the way Rory had dozed off too, with her head very much on his shoulder.

Jess looked down at her, all peaceful and beautiful. The urge to kiss her came over him all of a sudden and Jess immediately blamed the beer, even if he had only drunk one and a half tonight. Rory was off limits, absolutely and completely. Besides, even if he and Logan hadn’t made a deal, they had only known the girl two weeks. She would move out in a heartbeat if she woke up to find his lips on hers, calling him all the perverted names under the sun, Jess was sure. His eyes went back to the movie and he did his best to concentrate but it was impossible, especially when Rory’s body stirred against his own.

“Hey,” he said deliberately, trying to get her awake whilst the going was good. “Rory?”

“Huh?” she said as she came to, eyes opening very suddenly, expression surprised and then utterly shocked as she realised what had happened.

Rory sat up straight very quickly and looked as if she felt sick from doing so. She glanced from Jess to the TV to Logan and back around again. She flushed bright red all over her face and down her neck too.

“I... I’m sorry” she stammered, standing up fast. “I should clean up,” she declared, gathering up the pizza boxes and rushing towards the kitchen.

Jess watched her go, glanced over at Logan and confirmed he was still asleep, then got up himself and went after her. In the kitchen, she was hunting for something, and her muttered words gave Jess a clue as to what. He grabbed the roll of trash bags from the drawer and handed them to her.

“You okay?” he checked.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” she told him, though she didn't quite look it.

The truth was, Rory felt so very embarrassed. Not so much because she had fallen asleep or even because she had done so with her head on Jess’ shoulder. It was more about the images dancing in her head right now, the dream she had been having in which both Jess and Logan had been present, and neither entirely clothed. Forcing those pictures from her mind, she busied herself with forcing the very large pizza boxes into the very annoying trash bag that didn’t want to open. Jess stepped up to help her, and not knowing what else to do, Rory let him.

“I was meaning to ask you,” he said as he assisted with the trash. “Did you get a chance to read my book yet?”

“I did,” she told him, with a genuine smile. “Twice actually.”

“Twice?” Jess checked, apparently stunned at the revelation. “You liked it?”

“Jess, I loved it!” Rory told him, with no lack of enthusiasm. “It was amazing. You are such a talented writer. I can’t imagine it would take much for a big publishing house to snap your arm off so they could get the rights to 'The Subsect'.”

Jess did not know what to say to that. He had hoped Rory liked his novel, but when she hadn’t given an opinion either way he figured she either didn't care enough about it to read the whole thing, or that she hated it. This was the complete opposite, a rave review, and from someone who’s opinion of literature he knew he could respect.

Unfortunately, the moment he opened his mouth to thank her for her compliments and dig deeper into her thoughts on 'The Subsect', they were interrupted.

“Hey, I think I missed the end of the movie,” said Logan, rubbing his eyes. “Not surprising at the time we started I guess.”

“Guess not” Rory agreed, shaking her head as if to clear the daze she had found herself in. “Um, I was just cleaning up, but the rest can probably wait until morning,” she decided, dumping the now full trash bag into the corner.

With both guys standing here she got a new flashback to her dream and felt the blush coming back to her cheeks. She really needed to make her escape.

“Thanks for a great night, guys,” she told them. “It was fun. Good night!” she called, rushing around the two of them and out of the kitchen door to her room before another word was spoken.

Jess turned to watch her go, only to find himself face to face with Logan’s questioning gaze.

“What?”

“I don’t know man,” his room-mate told him. “Something I should know about here?”

Jess shook his head. “I’m going to bed too,” he confirmed, slipping past Logan and walking away.

Left alone in the kitchen, Logan thought over the evenings events and then turned to look at the two bedroom doors of his room-mates. Shaking his head he opened the fridge and pulled out another beer. He was probably just being paranoid anyway.


	8. Chapter 8

It was almost eleven when Rory came out of her bedroom. It seemed to take forever for her to fall back to sleep after snoozing so easily on the couch with Jess before. She blamed the dream she had about both him and Logan, and the conversation with them after she awoke from it too. She liked them both. As far as Rory was concerned, there was nothing not to like about Jess or Logan, but it didn’t sit right with her that she was dreaming about them in an erotic kind of a way. The last thing their living arrangement needed was sex or romance. Better that they all stay just friends, which was probably all either of them wanted anyway. Rory decided to put her strange dream out of her head and move on. She managed to get back to sleep after reading for a while, but now she was awake again she was going to have to face the guys. The bathroom was calling her after all that she had drunk last night, and then she really needed a coffee and food.

Venturing out into the living room, Rory found it empty and crossed quickly to the bathroom. A few minutes later, having heard no movement from either of the guy’s rooms, she went to the kitchen and got her coffee. She was contemplating what she might want to eat when a noise in the living room caught her attention. Rory peered out through the kitchen door and found Logan hopping around, holding one bare foot in his hand. He promptly toppled over onto the couch.

“Are you okay?” asked Rory as she rushed to see what had happened.

“I’ll live, Ace, but thanks for asking,” he said, making a face. “Did the table move while I was sleeping?” he checked, the hand not rubbing his foot now covering his eyes a moment.

“I think maybe the left-over beer in your system moved you rather than the furniture,” she said with a smile. “I’ll get you some coffee.”

“Rory Gilmore, you are a saint!” Logan declared.

Before long, Rory was sat cross-legged in the arm chair with her coffee in her hands, whilst Logan continued to lounge on the couch with his own hot, strong beverage. He didn’t look so bad in his hangover state, but he clearly didn’t feel good.

“Is Jess hiding from us?” she asked conversationally.

“No,” said Logan, shaking his head and immediately wishing he hadn’t. “Er, he works a lot of Sundays. Wal-Mart pays well for their happy little worker bees on the day of rest.”

Rory nodded in understanding and sipped her coffee thoughtfully. It was a shame not to get to spend a lazy Sunday with the guys, even if she had got up this morning hoping to avoid them. As much as she felt awkward about her dream, Rory really liked her room-mates and hanging out with them was fun. If she could just keep her strange erotic thoughts in check, it would be fine. Last weekend, she had reorganised her belongings several times, stocked up on groceries and toiletries at the corner store, plus called her mom, Lane, and Skyped with Paris. Add in a little reading and she filled the time pretty well, barely noticing she had been left all by herself. Now she was craving company and was very glad to have found some.

“So, I’m guessing no major plans for today, huh?” said Logan then. “I mean, I’m guessing if you were going visiting the homestead you would’ve left already, and according to last night’s getting-to-know-you session, there’s no special guy to take you out to brunch or anything.”

“Nope, no plans,” said Rory, feeling just a little self-conscious about the fact he had pointed out she was single in such a way. “Does Jess have a girlfriend?” she asked, more to prove that she wasn’t the only singleton than anything else.

The look on Logan’s face suggested he had taken her question as interest in their room-mate. Just as soon as Rory realised that she back-pedalled extremely quickly.

“I mean, you know I’m single, and I know you’ve got no-one serious in your life.”

“I’ll have you know I am very serious about several women in my life,” Logan told her with a wicked smirk.

“You know what I mean.” Rory rolled her eyes. “I just wondered if Jess was on the free and single boat with us?”

“As far as I know.” Logan shrugged. “I mean, we don’t exactly braid each other’s hair and do the whole kiss-and-tell thing, but I’m guessing I would’ve noticed if Jess started doing anything that wasn’t working, writing, or reading his world’s supply of books.”

“I guess you would,” Rory agreed, sipping her coffee.

“I mean, don’t get me wrong, Jess dates. He’s not a monk or anything, but trying to get the guy to just be casual about that kind of thing would require electrodes. He’s kind of serious about stuff sometimes, especially women, except for that one time, but... Well, that was different, I guess.”

Rory opened her mouth to ask what he was talking about, but never got a chance. Logan’s attention was taken by his cell buzzing loudly. One hand held his head that was not being helped by the vibrating sound as the other opened up the text message. There was a grin on his face a mile wide as he read whatever was written there.

“Sorry, Rory, but I have to go,” he said, getting up from the couch onto slightly wobbly legs.

“You have to work too?”

“No, this one isn’t business, it’s pleasure,” he said with a wink, before disappearing into his room.

He hit the bathroom a moment later and within ten minutes was gone from the apartment completely. Rory drank down the last of her coffee and then let out a sigh. All alone again. She figured maybe she could call her mom for another catch up, but she had already used up most of her free minutes for the month. It was certainly too late in the day to try to go visiting, so it seemed Rory was stuck in the apartment alone for the foreseeable.

Taking her cup to the kitchen, she got herself a refill and considered how to spend her time. She rifled through the kitchen cupboard and located some popcorn which she duly threw in the microwave. She could watch a movie, she supposed, or a little TV. Rory wandered into the living room, sipping her drink, her eyes landing on Jess’ bedroom door. Beyond it lie a veritable library of books, some of which she was bound not to have read before. He had said that she could borrow anything she wanted from his collection, and his only stipulation had been that she knock before entering if he was at home. Right now, Jess was out, no need for knocking, and since she had been invited, it wouldn’t exactly be trespassing or stealing.

The microwave pinged and Rory jumped, having quite forgotten to expect the sound in the silence. She went back to the kitchen and retrieved her snack, then returned to the living room. She was chewing thoughtfully on salted kernels for fully five minutes before her bravery suddenly kicked in.

“You’re being ridiculous!” she told herself, marching forward and shoving open the bedroom door.

It gave with more ease than she thought it might, and Rory was sent tumbling to the carpet, popcorn flying everywhere.

“Damn it!” she cursed, trying to clear up the mess as quickly as possible.

Dumping the evidence into the waste paper basket under the desk, Rory double-checked she had cleared up every last piece of food and then sat down heavily on the carpet. From down here, the bookshelves seemed to go on forever, the top being far to high for her to reach without standing on something, she was sure. Down at her current level, there was plenty to be going along with, Rory realised, and shifted over for a closer look. Her fingers ran along the spines of both paperbacks and hard covers, some well-worn, some hardly touched. She smiled at familiar titles and pulled out a couple that she didn’t know so she could check out the cover and flip through the pages. Soon she had found something she liked and got engrossed in a particularly thick tome. Rory was unaware of time passing as the hours ticked away.

* * *

Jess didn’t mind working Sundays. Though it was supposed to be the day of rest, it was no hardship for him to turn up to Wal-Mart and shift boxes on the forklift. It wasn’t exactly a job that required all of his brain power. So long as he stayed alert enough not to run into anybody or anything, he could let his mind wander some, usually over the latest chapter he was drafting or similar. Today was no different, and when his shift was over he was eager to get home and type up some notes before they were completely out of his head.

Coming in through the front door of the apartment, Jess paid no mind to the fact he encountered neither of his room-mates. They were probably in their own rooms or maybe even out with friends or whatever. It was none of his business how they spent their Sunday and Jess just headed straight for his bedroom without a moment’s pause. He almost jumped out of his skin when he opened the door and found a person in there.

“Oh, Jess!” Rory gasped, hand over her heart as she experienced the same shock he had. “I’m sorry,” she said, scrambling to her feet. “I thought you’d be at work for hours.”

“I was at work for hours,” he told her. “It’s almost six in the afternoon,” he said, showing her his watch.

Rory’s eyes went so wide he almost expected them to roll clean out of her head.

“I shouldn’t’ve stayed in here. I’m sorry,” she began rambling, shoving the book from her hands into Jess’ own. “I just... You said I could borrow a book and I was trying to pick one and then I started reading. I tend to lose track of time.”

“Rory, slow down,” Jess urged her, glad he was between her and the door so she couldn’t bolt right away. “It’s no big deal. I said you could borrow a book so you borrowed one. What’s the big deal?”

“I stayed in your room!” she told him dramatically. “That’s an invasion of privacy and... and it’s not good.”

“Would it make you feel better if I went and sat in your room for a while?” he asked, with an amused smirk that Rory herself was not appreciating.

“That’s not funny, and no, it wouldn’t,” she told him. “Not that I think you would do anything bad in there, and I didn’t snoop or mess anything up in here. Well, I spilt some popcorn, but I did clean it up. I’m sorry.”

“Could you please stop saying you’re sorry?” Jess asked her. “Seriously, Rory, it’s a little over the top. I’m not mad at you. We’re cool, okay?”

“Okay,” she said, nodding her head, and yet she didn’t entirely look like she meant it.

She turned her face away, arms folded across her chest. Jess thought she looked like the most awkward person in the world right now, and then when she sniffed he realised it was worse than that.

“Rory?” he said, his hand going to her face and turning her head so she was looking at him, just as tears streamed from her eyes. “Oh geez, please don’t cry,” he told her desperately, not knowing how to handle such a thing.

Women crying was never cool. He even hated seeing his mother in tears and she made him mad more often than she didn’t and usually deserved whatever was causing her pain. Rory was so good and nice, if Jess thought for a second he had caused her to be so upset, he would want to drown himself, but he knew he hadn’t done anything wrong. In fact, he had just told her things were not the big deal she seemed to think.

“I can’t help it,” she said, wiping her cheeks with both hands. “And it’s not you, it’s just... I’m sorry. I guess I’m not used to this yet”

“This?”

“Living here, being away from my family, my friends. I mean, I know I did the whole Obama trail, but that was different somehow. I was with people all in the same boat as me, and I made friends quickly, and we were always all together. When I’m not working and you and Logan are out, I’m... I feel so cut off from everything and everyone, and maybe it’s partly because my birthday is coming up next week and I know I can’t get home because of work, but getting lost in that book, it made me feel better. I literally forgot where I was, and then when you came in, I felt so awkward, like I shouldn’t be here. You probably think I’m crazy,” she said, shaking her head.

Jess felt horrible. He wanted to tell her it’d all be okay, but that sounded like such a line. He didn’t know if Rory would adjust to being out on her own in the world. It was easy for him, because even when he was home he was pretty much always by himself, learning from a young age to fend for himself because Liz simply didn’t bother most of the time. It was different for Rory. She needed family and friends around her, some kind of support that she just didn’t have in New York, at least not yet.

“It’s your birthday next week?” he checked. 

“Wednesday.” Rory nodded. “It’s not a big deal or anything, I just.. I’m being dumb,” she said, shaking her head.

She looked like she felt pretty stupid about the whole thing. To be honest, Jess wasn’t huge on celebrating his own birthday, but different people had different traditions and thought those kind of occasions ought to be special. He would have to talk to Logan, see if maybe they could come up with some way to give Rory a decent day on Wednesday. In the meantime...

“Hey, you want to go get something to eat?” he asked, pretty sure food was a good way to raise a smile with her. “My treat since you paid last night.”

“You only just got home,” she said, stating the obvious for no reason Jess could understand.

“So, I’ll get changed and go back out again, with you,” he offered. “C’mon, we’ll take a walk around, you can pick any place you want. You can even bring the book along if it makes you feel better?” he said, clearly teasing her as he held out the volume she had been so engrossed in before.

“We can leave the book here,” she said with a smile that she couldn’t help. “Although, if I could keep it for a while until I finish...”

“Obviously,” said Jess, putting the book in her hands. “Rory, you’ve gotta stop thinking you’re screwing up all the time. You’re not. You have a great job, an apartment, and friends here. Soon you’ll get to know more people, learn your way around a little better. It’ll be cool,” he promised her.

“Yeah, it’ll be cool,” she said with more confidence than she ever had before. “Thank you, Jess,” she added, going with the bravery that swelled inside her and leaning in to kiss his cheek.

The next second she was gone from his sight, yelling that she had to get changed too, if they were going out. Jess stood stock-still for a moment, wondering what the hell just happened, before closing the door to get ready. His plans for the evening had just gone completely out the window, and yet he was smiling and didn’t mind at all.


	9. Chapter 9

Jess and Rory had talked a lot over dinner on Sunday night. Though she had a tendency towards rambling like a crazy person, Jess didn’t mind it at all, so long as she was smiling. When he got her on the topic of books or movies that she loved, her happy expression never faded, save for when she got a little mad at him for arguing with her opinions, and that was just funny. She talked a lot about her mom, her friends, even her grandparents. Jess had deliberately steered her towards the subject of birthday traditions, in the hopes of getting some ideas for this year. Unfortunately, a lot of what she told him was very specific and unachievable. A special breakfast at the local diner in Stars Hollow was out, and Jess really didn’t think he wanted to substitute for Lorelai in going into Rory’s room at 4.03am and talking about the moment of her birth, because that would be beyond weird! Still, he had a few ideas, and hoped that after talking to Logan they could come up with something that would give Rory a happy birthday.

“I can’t do anything in the morning, my shift starts too early,” Jess had told Logan. “You can handle breakfast, right?”

“I thought we were buying her dinner?” his room-mate checked.

“We are.” Jess nodded

“You want me to pack her a lunch too?” asked Logan in full sarcasm mode. “I mean, does she know she’s in the big brother program all of a sudden?”

Jess rolled his eyes. “She’s homesick, man, and her birthday is a big deal to her. I thought maybe you’d want to keep her from crying. Again.”

Logan relented then. He wasn’t a monster, and he didn’t want Rory to be upset. She was a nice girl and he would prefer for her to be happy. Of course, he was getting increasingly concerned about how much Jess seemed to care about their room-mate. If he didn’t know any better, he would say his buddy was getting a crush. Logan hoped rather than believed that he had been right in what he said before, about Jess wanting to be a brother to Rory. That would be the best thing for everybody, even if Logan himself found it hard to remember why he wasn’t supposed to entice Rory into his bed. He had a feeling she would be amazing. The seemingly quiet ones usually got pretty wild when aroused.

With plans eventually firmly settled, The Rory’s Birthday Project was a go. She had no idea anything was amiss as she got up like any other day and prepared herself for work. Of course Rory checked her phone and was happy to find messages from her mom, Lane, Paris, as well as a couple of other friends. She was at least smiling as she headed in search of coffee and breakfast. The surprise came when she reached the living room and some really delicious smells assaulted her nose. Bacon was being cooked, and coffee brewed. She wandered into the kitchen mostly expecting to find Jess at the stove. It was a surprise to see Logan waiting for her, and the tiny kitchen table chock-full of wonderful things to see and to eat.

“Happy Birthday, Ace!” said Logan, arms wide as he presented her breakfast to her.

“Oh my... You did this for me?” she gasped, hands breifly over her mouth in surprise.

“Well, I wasn’t expecting the Pope, so yeah, it’s for you,” he told her, pulling out a chair and encouraging her to sit.

The large plate of food was more than enticing, alongside her usual large cup of coffee. There was an envelope bearing her name propped up by a vase with a few flowers in it, and a box of doughnuts was waiting for attention when the bacon, eggs, and pancakes were done.

“This is amazing, thank you so much,” said Rory, feeling oddly emotional. “You really didn’t have to do all this for me.”

“What can I say, Ace? I’m a hell of a guy,” Logan told her with a grin. “But seriously, it wasn’t all me, Jess pitched in. I guess you could call it a team effort. We just wanted you to have a happy birthday.”

“Well, it’s certainly starting really well,” she said, smiling brightly as she picked up the envelope and tore it open.

Inside was a card, fairly generic in style, but both Logan and Jess had written inside wishing her a great day. Rory’s attention went right back to her food then. She was hungry and it looked so good, but there only seemed to be one plate.

“You’re not eating?” she asked Logan as he pulled up the chair opposite.

“It’s a little early for me. Honestly, I plan on heading back to bed when you’re done, at least until work needs me,” he explained. “I could probably force down a doughnut though, if it makes you feel less self-conscious.”

“Help yourself,” she said happily, picking up her knife and fork to dig into her own breakfast.

She was smiling so much she could barely chew. Logan was surprised how much it made him happy to see it. When she started actively laughing he had to ask what was quite so funny.

“It’s nothing,” she said, her hand to her mouth until she had swallowed her food. “It’s just... I was feeling so down about being here for my birthday, not at home with my family and friends. It’s so immature, I know, but my birthday was always so special and it didn’t feel like it was going to be today. Now it’s turned out to be so good already, and this is just breakfast!” she said, smiling widely. “Thank you, Logan. You’re very sweet,” she told him, hand covering his on the table.

“No problem, Ace,” he said, turning his hand over to squeeze her fingers. “You’re worth the effort.”

The way he said it made a shiver run through her in the best way.

“I’ll bet you say that to all the girls,” she said, feeling that covering with a joke was probably for the best.

Logan laughed. “You of all people know that I don’t cook breakfast for just anyone,” he reminded her with a wink, getting up from his seat. “Now, since I’m pretty sure you have to run in the next ten minutes, I am going to leave you to finish your breakfast in peace. Leave the dishes, we’ll get to them later.”

“I can do them,” Rory insisted, but Logan fixed her with a mock-stern look.

“It’s your birthday, let us spoil you.”

“Yes, sir,” she joked, with a salute for good measure.

Logan was half way to his bedroom when he heard her call his name. He turned in time for Rory to almost run completely into him, and before he could process what was happening she had hugged him so tight.

“Thank you, Logan,” she said too seriously as she finally let go. “I mean it.”

“You’re welcome, Rory,” he told her, unable to tear his eyes away from her own for a few seconds longer than was really sensible.

She ran back to the kitchen a second later, and Logan shook his head. He needed sleep, and somehow he just knew his dreams were going to be filled with bright blue eyes and an infectious smile.

* * *

Rory did not have the greatest day at work. Several people were out sick with a bug that was going around, and her boss was in a foul mood. If one person yelled at her today, then six did, but Rory did not break. She was not going to allow her birthday to be ruined by anybody or anything.

The day had started beautifully, with her room-mates proving that after just two a half weeks of living together they had all become firm friends, and she was very much liked by Logan and Jess. Through the day she received texts with amusing emojis from her mom, a voicemail from April, and various other birthday messages from friends and family alike. Her grandparents even had a bouquet of flowers delivered to the office for her. Nothing was getting Rory Gilmore down today.

She arrived home, still smiling in spite of everything, and pretty sure she was entering an empty apartment. It was a real surprise to find Jess waiting on her arrival.

“Hey, birthday girl,” he greeted her with a smile. “How’s your day been so far?”

“Oh, well, breakfast was wonderful. Thank you for your part in that,” she said, coming over to the couch and dumping her bag down. “The work part was akin to Dante’s ninth circle, but I got through it, so all’s well that ends well.”

“Don’t go thinking the day ends here,” said Jess, shaking his head. “Logan gets home in an hour and then we’re out of here.”

“We? Out of here, where?” she asked, looking as bewildered as she felt.

“If I told you then it wouldn’t be a birthday surprise now would it?”

Rory’s eyes were wide as anything as she stared at Jess’ smirking face. He was serious. The guys were taking her out tonight, after already making such an effort this morning. She was completely overwhelmed.

“You don’t have to do that,” she insisted. “Really, Jess, I know I got upset the other day, but I didn’t expect-”

“Rory!” he cut her off before the adorable ramble turned annoying. “Would you get it into your head that we’re your friends now? We want to do this, okay? No coercion, no hypnosis, we wanted to.”

She let out a long breath, seemingly releasing all the potential ramble energy without the rest of the words she had been planning to say. She smiled.

“You really are so sweet, both of you,” she said, just as she had told Logan this morning.

“Yeah, well, don’t tell anybody. We’ve got reps to protect.”

Rory laughed at the way he said it, then checked her watch. “You said an hour, right? I better shower and pick out clothes and shoes... You’re not going to give me any hints about where we’re going, are you?” she tried even as she reached the bedroom door.

The pleading look in her eyes got to Jess in a second and he relented.

“Put on shoes you can walk in, bring a coat, and do not eat before we leave,” he said shortly, making it clear that was all the information she was getting.

Rory grinned before crashing into her room. She called “Thanks, Jess!” over her shoulder.

He couldn’t help but smile.

* * *

Logan and Jess both cleaned up very nicely. Rory really hadn’t been sure how fancy to go in her own outfit and had eventually plumped for a smart-casual black dress that would look okay in most eating establishments. She felt she looked okay when she came out into the living room and found her room-mates both in slacks, button-down shirts, and jackets. Any girl would feel pretty special on the arm of either of them. Rory grinned because she got them both for tonight. A blush rose in her cheeks and her mother’s voice said ‘dirty’ inside her head when she realised what her thoughts could mean, a certain dream resurrecting itself in the back of her mind. Rory pushed it away and declared herself ready to leave.

The restaurant wasn’t fancy, but it wasn’t some two-bit diner either. Not that Rory would’ve minded if it had been, but it was kind of nice to go to a slightly more formal place. It was small, probably easily missed if you didn’t know where to find it. Logan and Jess seemed to know the owner since there was a big deal made of him coming out to see them and shake their hands. Rory was introduced as both the room-mate and the birthday girl and from that point on was thoroughly spoiled. The meal was excellent, conversation flowed easily, and the wait staff sang happy birthday, bringing out Rory’s dessert with a candle in the centre. She didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. It was almost perfect.

“You guys really didn’t have to go to all this trouble,” she insisted.

“Honestly, Ace, we didn’t even know about the celebration tiramisu,” Logan told her, “but I’m glad you like it.”

“We just wanted you to have a good birthday and realise that living here with us isn’t so bad,” said Jess.

Rory smiled. “I never thought it was so bad,” she assured them both. “But if I had been at all worried, you definitely put my mind at rest. I could never think that living in New York with the two of you was a mistake.”

“So, I guess that just leaves one birthday tradition to go,” said Logan, reaching into his back pocket and producing a box with a bow on it. “Happy Birthday, Ace.”

Rory’s spoon stilled half way to her mouth when she realised he had just presented her with a gift. It was a box that almost certainly contained jewellery and she shifted awkwardly at the implication. Men bought jewellery for women they were dating or married to, or potentially a relative like a daughter or a mother. She and Logan were friends and room-mates, that was all, and they had only known each other such a short time.

“You gonna open it or just stare all night?” he asked when she waited too long.

“Oh.” Rory shook her head, and carefully laid down her spoon. “Um, I’m opening it. Thank you,” she said, picking up the box and prising open the lid.

A beautiful sparkling pendant lay inside, a tiny pink stone set in a gold heart-shaped locket that was engraved with a butterfly design. It was gorgeous.

“And before you start complaining that I blew too much money on you, as much as it pains me to say this, it really wasn’t so expensive,” said Logan with a sigh. “One day, I plan to be in a place where I can shower women with diamonds again, but for now...”

“Oh no, Logan. Don’t say that. This is... It’s perfect” she assured him, taking the necklace carefully from the box. “Would you mind..?” she asked, handing it to him and moving her hair aside so he could assist.

“With pleasure, Ace,” said Logan, leaning in just as close as he could to fasten the chain around her neck.

Jess felt awkward watching the scene and weirdly annoyed by the closeness between his roommates. This meant nothing, he knew it didn’t, but for some reason the bubbling rage in his gut wasn’t listening, at least not until Logan moved away. Before Rory could get back to her dessert, Jess produced his gift and laid it on the table by Rory’s dish. She smiled on noticing it too had a familiar shape beneath the brown paper wrapping, though it was clearly not jewellery. It was the only thing that could thrill Rory more than something sparkly - a book.

“Jess, thank you,” she said, picking it up.

“Wait and see if you like it before you thank me,” he told her, watching as she carefully tore away the wrapping.

Rory’s eyes went wider than when she had saw the necklace. In all honesty, Jess thought he saw tears welling up too.

“Oh my... Jess, this is... How did you...?”

“You said you wanted a copy, I had a copy.” he shrugged like it was no big deal, but they both knew that wasn’t he case.

“It’s impossible to find this in any store, even online. The two copies I did find I couldn’t afford.”

“I don’t plan on reading it again so it’s yours. Happy Birthday.”

Rory wasn’t sure what she was thinking, if she was even thinking at all, as she got up from her seat and pretty much launched herself at Jess, hugging him just about as tight as she could. He hugged her back, even if he had been surprised by the sudden movement. He would’ve been a fool not to make the most of such a moment.

“Thank you, thank you, thank you!” she said, like an excited kid, kissing his cheek as she pulled away. “This is amazing!”

“You’re welcome.” Jess smiled, unable to help it, though the look faltered a little when he saw the way Logan was scowling.

“Both of you, thank you so much for everything today, it’s been incredible,” said Rory, putting the smile back on Logan’s face in a second when she glanced his way and beamed.

“Only the best for Miss Gilmore,” he said, though his eyes were fixed on Jess who was in turn staring at Rory.

The moment was over as fast as it had begun. Rory resumed eating dessert and then when the meal was done, the guys insisted they were splitting the bill, Rory wasn’t to spend a dime. They walked her home, Logan catching her once when she tripped on a rock that wasn’t there. It was fast becoming clear that Rory Gilmore did not hold her liquor so well. She had the giggles ever since she finished off that last glass of wine, but at least she was happy.

“When you go to work with headache in the morning, don’t come crying to us,” Logan warned her.

“I’m not drunk!” she insisted, laughing still. “Just a little tipsy. My mom says so long as you drink plenty of water before you go to sleep, you’ll always be fine.”

“Smart woman,” Jess noted as they headed into the apartment one behind the other.

He went straight to the kitchen and returned with a bottle of water from the fridge, placing it in Rory’s free hand, the one that didn’t have a death-grip on the book he had given her tonight.

“Thank you,” she said. “For tonight, thank you, both of you,” she smiled, looking between them. “You’re the best room-mates a girl could ask for,” she declared, throwing one arm around each of their necks and hugging them awkwardly.

“Get some sleep, Ace,” Logan urged her.

“I will,” she promised, grinning still as she let go of them at last and headed for her room. “Good night!” she called as she disappeared from their sight.

“Good night,” the guys replied in unison, watching her until she was out of sight, then turning towards each other.

The silly grins they had been wearing disappeared instantly they met each other’s gaze.

“We had a deal,” said Jess definitely.

“I don’t need a reminder,” replied Logan.

“Okay then.”

They both nodded once, before each of them headed to their own room and closed the door. Somehow they knew it wasn’t quite that simple anymore.


	10. Chapter 10

“Paris! It’s so great to see you!” Rory enthused, staring happily into the laptop screen.

“And you, Gilmore. It’s been a while,” her friend replied, smiling over the Skype connection. “How’re things at The Times?”

“They’re good, most days anyway. It’s very intense, but I love it,” Rory told her. “How’re you? How’s medical school? Is Doyle okay?”

“I’m fine. As always, working my tail off at school and keeping everyone else - including the professors - on their toes, but then, hey, what’s new, am I right?”

“You’re right.”

“Doyle is... Doyle. What is there to say? He drives me crazy on a daily basis, but I love the little dork, so what can you do?”

“Just live with him and be happy I guess.” Rory smiled.

“Speaking of living arrangements,” said Paris, with a look Rory wasn’t sure she liked. “How’re things with Bert and Ernie? Either one of them try to get into your panties yet?”

“Paris!” Rory squeaked, glad in this moment more than any other that this Skype chat had been agreed for when both her room-mates were out.

Somehow Rory just knew that even via laptop speakers and through her closed bedroom door, Paris’ voice would carry. She was way too outspoken to be allowed around Jess and Logan yet, even via the internet.

“C’mon, Gilmore, spill the dirt already. You’re living with a book nut and a disgraced Huntzberger, each of them apparently decent in looks and personality. We both know you’re pretty much catnip to any guy with a pulse, so what’s going on?”

“Paris, I know it’s not exactly covering new ground for you, but you’re acting crazy.”

“I’m living vicariously through you,” she countered. “I’m a one-man woman, my fun times are over. Now tell me about your love life.”

“Okay, first, you love Doyle and if he left you’d be miserable, so don’t even try to suggest otherwise,” said Rory definitely. “Second of all, my love life ceased to exist around the time we graduated Yale, which I know that you’re very well aware of. And third, I have no romantic interest in either Jess or Logan, okay?”

The look on Paris’ face was enough to prove she did not believe that last part even a little bit. In fact, she felt the need to question the second part also.

“It may not have been actual love, but something happened with that guy Levi that you met on the Obama trail. I know it did.”

“Paris, for the twenty seventh time, Levi is gay!”

“So you say. I have my doubts.”

Rory rolled her eyes. Sometimes there was just no talking to Paris. She got an idea in her head and it was impossible to shake her. For the most part, Rory didn’t even bother to try anymore, but when it came to her room-mates, she felt the need to be clear. After all, it wasn’t just Paris that seemed to think she was somehow closer to either Logan or Jess than she seemed. Marnie and Philip were all over that particular topic whenever they could bring it up. Honestly, it was as if some people thought of nothing but sex!

“Since you’re going to think what you want no matter what I say, there’s really no point in my arguing with you,” she conceded, “but I would at least like you to believe that every night I have been here I have slept in my own bed, alone. No exceptions.”

“That much I will believe,” Paris agreed.

“Thank you. Jess and Logan are both great guys though. They’ve been really sweet to me, taking me out for my birthday, showing me around the city. It’s kind of like having two big brothers looking out for me.”

That was a lie. Not the first part, because Rory really had been well-treated by her room-mates and did appreciate all their help. The trouble was, as much as she would like to assign them the role of siblings in her life, she couldn’t quite do it. They were very good looking guys, and though Rory had only had the one erotic dream with the two guys in starring roles, it was almost impossible to never let her mind wander when either Logan or Jess wandered through the living room without a shirt or something. She was only a woman, after all.

“...and personally, I would hope that if you were going to get yourself romantically involved with someone in New York it would be someone a little more up and coming than the stock boy or the fallen prince of the journalism industry.”

Paris was in full ranting mode when Rory realised she was supposed to be listening. Apparently she should be aiming higher than her friends level when it came to finding a boyfriend. What Paris failed to realise was that Rory really hadn’t come here looking for romance or even a casual fling.

“I’m focusing on my career right now,” she reminded her friend. “I thought you would approve.”

“My approval is irrelevant, although I do think it’s probably the right thing for you. You kind of skimmed over the work question. Things at The Times are okay? You said intense, right?”

“I did,” Rory agreed, nodding her head, and unable to keep from smiling. “But I also said I’m loving it. Paris, it’s everything I wanted it to be! I mean, sure, it’s only been five weeks and understandably they’re not giving me the biggest and best stories to cover yet, but I’m enjoying the pieces I am assigned. I emailed you a couple of things...”

“I saw them,” Paris assured her. “Sorry if you didn’t get a reply, sometimes it’s late before I get to read these things. You wanna talk about intense, this place just doesn’t have rest days. I sometimes wonder if part of the course is a test to see how many hours we can go without sleep. Not that it’s not good practice for those of us that actually make it to being doctors.”

They talked a little while longer and then ended the chat with a promise not to leave it quite so long next time. Of course, that was all dependant on their schedules. Given the chance both Paris and Rory would love to visit with each other, but right now it simply wasn’t practical.

Rory sat back on her bed and reached for a book from the shelf. She settled down to read for a while since she had nothing else to do, and neither of the guys were around. She felt okay about that now, the being alone in the apartment thing. She supposed like all things it just took some getting used to, like the general living away from home thing, and sharing an apartment with two guys. Rory certainly didn’t regret her decision to move in here. In fact, she was really quite enjoying the experience so far.

* * *

“Ace?”

Logan was calling her from the living room and Rory was a little confused by that. Checking her watch, she realised it wasn’t so very strange that he was home, but he rarely bellowed for her attention like that. Before she could even get up off the bed, he was knocking on her bedroom door.

“Coming!” she called to him, scrambling to her feet and yanking open the door. “Hey. Are you okay?”

“Sure, yeah, I’m fine,” he said, looking far from it somehow. “You wanna go out to eat?”

“Um, I guess, sure,” said Rory, feeling confused. “Any particular reason?”

“What? Can’t a guy just offer to buy dinner for his room-mate? I thought that was okay. I mean, you’ve been out with Jess, right? What’s the difference?”

“No difference.” Rory shook her head. “It’s just, you’re acting a little strange. Did something happen? At work maybe?”

He walked away from her door and dropped down into the arm chair. It put his back to her, which confused Rory all the more. Something was wrong here, she just knew it.

“Logan?” she tried, walking around so she could see his face, or at least she would have been able to if his hands weren’t covering it. “Maybe it’s none of my business, but you’re not acting like yourself right now. I wanna help, if you wanna talk to me?” she tried, sitting herself down on the couch and reaching a hand out to his knee.

That got his attention, but when he looked at her, he still didn’t look like Logan. Rory wasn’t sure how she would categorise his expression and demeanour, other than it just wasn’t like him. Logan was usually so upbeat, so confident. Even when he told her what had happened with his father and how he had gone out on his own years before, he never once looked sad or bitter, not even angry. Now he seemed so out of sorts. If she didn’t know better, Rory would say he was drunk, but she had seen Logan drink excessively before and that didn’t make him act like this. It was so strange.

“I’m sorry, Ace,” he said, sighing heavily. “I’m just having kind of a rough day. I had a meeting with a guy about my internet venture. It finally seemed like things were getting off the ground, but would you believe my father, good old Mitchum Huntzberger, swooped in and screwed up the whole damn deal!” he said crossly, fist slamming against the table.

Rory visibly jumped, startled as she was by the sudden movement and the sound. Logan immediately looked apologetic again.

“Did he...? Um, your dad wouldn’t ruin your deal on purpose would he?” she asked.

The humourless laughter that came from Logan then proved that was a foolish remark.

“Okay, maybe he would,” she considered. “I’m sorry, Logan. That’s a crappy thing for a father to do.”

“Yeah, well, it’s not the first and I doubt it’ll be the last,” he said, sighing once more. “I guess disinheriting me just wasn’t enough for Mitchum.”

Rory really wasn’t sure how to go about making this better. She didn’t know Logan well enough to know what cheered him up, except for the obvious, and those were not things Rory felt like she ought to or wanted to provide.

“Come on,” she said eventually, jumping up from her seat. “Let’s go out, like you said. Get some air, get some really fattening food. It always makes me feel better when I’ve had a bad day.”

Logan wasn’t convinced he could be so easily pleased, and yet when he looked up at Rory’s infectious smile and bright eyes, it was impossible for him not to grin, not to feel instantly lighter somehow. She was an amazing woman, he had thought so for a while now. Not just beautiful on the outside, but one of those people that was stunning from the inside too. Logan was certain she had a heart of gold in there somewhere, but she wasn’t afraid to speak her mind. That was just one more thing to love about Rory Gilmore.

“Y’know, you’re not alone in the crappy parent department,” said Rory as she leant into her room to grab her jacket. “My mom is the best, always has been, but my dad was never... well, he’s always been kind of absent. He ended up married to this other woman and they had a daughter… I don’t know, even when he was around for a while and actually with my mom and me, it never felt right. I mean, he’s my father, biologically at least, and I know he cares but… Luke was always really more of a dad to me.”

“Who’s Luke?” asked Logan curiously as they headed out together.

“Oh, my mom’s fiancé. He runs the diner in Stars Hollow, and he has just always been there for us. When I needed someone, if my mom couldn’t help or if the problem was that I was fighting with her or whatever, Luke was just there. He never lets me down.”

“Must be nice.”

“It is.” Rory nodded, smiling widely as the elevator took them down. “Stars Hollow is really just that kind of town.”

“A place where everybody knows your name?” Logan quoted and Rory laughed.

“Pretty much. Sometimes it gets a little suffocating, but when I think about it now, well, I guess I’ve been really lucky. From what you and Jess have told me, it’s easy to have a life full of people who don’t care enough. I can’t imagine how tough it’s been on you guys.”

“We survived.” Logan shrugged. “Besides, it’s made both of us pretty self-sufficient, and that’s not a bad thing.”

“I guess not,” Rory agreed. “So, where did you want to go eat?” she asked as they got out onto the darkening street.

“Some place with a bar?” said Logan with a heavy sigh, reminded once again of why Rory was trying to cheer him up in the first place, but just having her here brought him back into good humour pretty fast. “C’mon, Ace,” he said, smiling because it was impossible not to as he let his arm drop around her shoulders. “I know a great place for us.”

* * *

Jess was a little surprised to find the apartment empty when he got home from work Sunday evening, but he didn’t worry about it too much. He hadn’t got the energy or inclination for writing and so got himself a sandwich and sat down on the couch to read for a while. It was past ten when the door opened and laughter emanated through the apartment. Jess looked over to see Logan and Rory stumbling in, practically holding each other up, and apparently in hysterics over something.

“I swear, he never saw it coming!” said Logan, laughing until he was practically crying. “To this day he cannot look at a paint ball gun without recoiling.”

“Oh my God!” Rory gasped, holding her sides that clearly ached from all the laughing she had been doing.

Jess stood watching them for a moment before they even noticed he was there.

“Hey, Jess! It’s Jess!” said Rory, pointing him out to Logan just in case he missed the fact he was there.

“Hey, Mariano. Just the guy we were looking for,” he said, holding onto Rory with one arm and gesturing too much with the other one. “C’mon. We only swung by to grab you since you couldn’t answer your cell like a normal person!”

Jess glanced at his phone lying on the table. If it had rung at all he never heard it, which made him wonder.

“I told you, you probably dialled wrong,” Rory insisted. “And I also told you, I am not going out again. I am home to stay and that’s that,” she said definitely, trying unsuccessfully to get out from under Logan’s arm and making herself laugh with her fruitless efforts.

“C’mon, Ace. Don’t leave us guys to drink alone!” said Logan, staggering when she tried to get away. “Jess, man, convince her to come with us.”

“Aaw, jeez” said Jess at the crazy display, running a hand back through his hair.

When Rory made one more attempt to move away from Logan, only for both of them to go sprawling into a wall under their own weight, he decided he ought to intervene. Jess removed Logan’s arm from Rory and moved her away from his buddy, who stayed leaning on the wall a moment. Though Rory was probably just a little tipsy, Logan was already pretty darn drunk. There was no way Jess was going out with him tonight, not least because they all had work in the morning. Somebody had to engage their brain today, and apparently it was up to Jess to be the adult. He hated that.

“You’re both just boring,” said Logan, even as Jess tried to get him back on his feet. “We’re young, we live in New York City! Only losers stay home on a Saturday night.”

“It’s Sunday,” said Jess shortly. “Now c’mon, man. The only place your ass needs to be right now is in bed.”

Logan laughed as he was half-dragged to his bedroom. Rory opened the door in the hopes of assisting, coming nose to nose with Logan all of a sudden.

“You coming in, Rory?” he asked her, in full-on smoulder mode despite the alcohol.

“Goodnight, Logan,” she said firmly, laughing once again.

She was a happy drunk, Jess noted, and presumably had taken Logan’s suggestion as a joke. Somehow Jess wasn’t buying that the question had been made in all innocence. Taking Logan into his room, Jess dumped him on his bed and pulled off his shoes. He threw the spare blanket over him, shut off the light and told him to sleep it off. As he left, Logan was slurring his way through the chorus of Twisted Sister’s We’re Not Gonna Take It, but not so loud that it was going to bother anybody.

Back out in the living room, Jess found Rory sprawled on the couch, flipping through the book he had abandoned a few minutes ago when they first came crashing through the door.

“You okay?” he checked, leaning his arms on the back of the couch and looking down at her.

“I’m fine,” she said happily, tipping her head all the way back and giggling at the sight of him all upside down. “I had fun today. A lot of fun,” she confessed.

She was some weird combination of adorable and sexy that Jess couldn’t even begin to figure out. It was actually a relief when she got herself up and headed for her room, saying she really needed to get to bed. Jess wasn’t sure what he would’ve done if he had to share space with her right now. Actually the problem was probably more that he did know. As pissed as he felt at Logan for the fun time he had clearly shown Rory today, Jess knew that was damn hypocritical. Honestly, he was only jealous, and wishing he had been the one that Rory was literally falling all over in the doorway. This situation just wasn’t getting any better, and Jess really didn’t know how to fix it.


	11. Chapter 11

“...and it’s not as if it was my bloody fault in the first place, but you know how he can be.”

Rory was nodding her head but was not really hearing anything Marnie was telling her. They were sat across the table from each other in the staff break room, both with a coffee in front of them, supposedly catching up. Marnie had been talking, not unlike a Gilmore in her speed and rambliness, but Rory just couldn’t keep up. She forgot the time honoured tradition of plenty of water between the alcohol and going to bed, and so now she was suffering a hangover, at work, on a Monday morning, no less. It was not fun.

“Y’know you are not yourself today,” said Marnie, sipping her coffee. “If I didn’t know any better, Rory Gilmore, I’d say you got supremely hammered last night. Oh bloody hell, you actually did!” she realised as Rory looked up then.

“There were some drinks, probably more than I’m used to,” her friend admitted. “It’s Logan’s fault, and he will pay,” she said definitely, taking a good long drink from her own mug and wincing some.

She liked her coffee hot and strong, but this was beyond black in the hopes of defeating the hangover symptoms. So far, not so good, not least because the break room coffee was kind of scuzzy.

“Well, well,” said Marnie with a look. “You were out with Logan, that guy that you’re apparently not dating and not at all interested in.”

“I’m not!” Rory insisted. “We just went out is all. I’ve been out with Jess before, it’s no big deal.”

“Of course not, darling.” Marnie shook her head. “Honestly, I’m the last one to judge. I mean, why stick to one gorgeous hunk when you can have two?” she grinned.

Rory’s eyes went wide. Sometimes Marnie really was scandalous! Not that she could deny that both Jess and Logan were great guys and more than a little lucky in the looks department. There was no way she could date them both at the same time, or even one of them at once. That would be so awkward giving their living situation, which was something she had told not just Marnie, but Paris too. It seemed to be a general reaction to men and women being friends that somebody either must be in love or at the very least sleeping together.

“Why is it so hard for people to understand that me and Jess and Logan are all just friends?” she asked desperately. “I mean, have you never had a guy that’s just a friend?”

Marnie gave that one some serious consideration.

“Hmm, not unless they bat for the other team, like Phillip,” she said thoughtfully. “I mean, I’ve got brothers, cousins, that sort of thing. I suppose I treat them like friends, but that’s family, it’s different. The rest of the male population are really only good for one thing, darling, and most of them aren’t great at that!” she said, rolling her eyes. “C'mon though, be honest, if you had to, out of your two delicious room-mates, which one would you shag?”

“Oh my God!”

Rory’s hands were over her face through shock and pure embarrassment when Phillip walked in, wondering what on Earth had happened. Marnie controlled her laughter long enough to explain, even as Rory revealed her beet-red face.

“I want to know, gun to her head, whether Rory would rather have Logan or Jess.”

She put a particular emphasis on ‘have’ that proved to Phillip just exactly what she meant. Spinning around the nearest chair, Philip sat down straddling the back, elbows on the table and chin in his hands. All his attention was on Rory, as he seemingly wanted to know the answer to the question as much as Marnie did.

Rory was about to blow up at them, tell them to get their minds out of the gutter, but it just wasn’t so easy. She couldn’t lie, and she would be forced to do so if she was going to say she never thought about it. That one dirty dream aside, her mind had still wandered some when it came to the two guys she lived with. Of course she had thought about what it might be like to get closer to each of them. She told herself it would never happen, for a whole multitude of reasons, but that didn’t stop her imagination going off at tangents.

“I... I don't know,” she said at last, seemingly defeated.

Philip wasn’t giving in any easier than Marnie apparently. “I read once that ‘I don't know’ usually means ‘I don't want to tell you’.”

Rory’s mind flared with a flame of truth and she knew he was right. She did know who she would choose if she had to, though she kind of wished she didn’t. Saying it out loud made it true, and that would only lead to no good. Lying was never a good thing, not least because she was very bad at it, so Rory took another sip of disgusting coffee and changed the subject.

“Don't either of you have any work to do?”

Marnie sighed. “Sadly, yes,” she admitted, getting up to leave.

“Actually, I was about to run out for some real coffee” said Phillip, rising also. “I'm guessing you need?” he checked with Rory.

“I'll love you forever if you can get me a two-shot Americano,” she told him, complete with pleading puppy dog eyes.

Phillip laughed and shook his head. “You're so easily bought.”

That was probably true, Rory knew, but if she was going to make it through the rest of today, she needed some real coffee and she needed it soon. Also, it might just help if nobody else questioned her on potential feelings for her room-mates. That was one topic best left alone, at least for now.

* * *

“We need to talk.”

Logan didn’t even look up from his computer when he heard Jess speak, but the smirk on his lips proved he had heard him.

“You’re not breaking up with me, are you?” he joked, but when he finally gave Jess his full attention, it was clear he didn't think this was a laughing matter. “Seriously, man, what’s up?”

Jess was a little surprised that Logan couldn’t guess what this was about. Maybe he did and he was hiding it well. For as long as they had known each other, it ought to be obvious when one was concealing something from the other, but growing up the way they had, both were pretty well versed in hiding what they really felt from a very young age. That kind of mask was tough to see through, even if you had lived together for years, caring for each other like brothers might.

“What the hell was last night about?” asked Jess, arms folded across is chest.

“It was about drowning my sorrows.” Logan shrugged, closing the lid to his laptop. “Or at least a bad business deal. Mithcum got in the way of my plans, again, something he takes great delight in doing, as you know. Rory came out with me to eat, get some drinks, make me feel better. Jess, man, what is your problem?” he asked when his room-mate continued to glare at him. “I mean, you and Rory have been out alone before, I didn’t complain. Of course, I trust you. Maybe that’s the difference”

“Really?” asked Jess. “You trust me?”

Logan shook his head and rose to his feet. He was not impressed by the attitude he was getting here and planned on fighting against it with a little of his own.

“Unless you’re about to tell me some reason why I shouldn’t trust you, then yeah, I do,” he reminded him. “Why? Is this not a two way street anymore?”

“You tell me,” Jess countered. “We had a deal.”

“We had a deal, we had a deal!” Logan echoed crossly. “God, you’re becoming like a stuck record lately. I know we had a deal, so what is the damn problem? In case you hadn’t noticed, Rory did not come into my room last night, even when I’m pretty sure I remember asking her to. We didn’t kiss goodnight, we have not slept together, and we’re not dating!” he yelled crossly. “Honestly, if anybody should feel betrayed, it should be me!”

Jess’ eyes widened at the suggestion. “I have done nothing!” he said definitely.

“Except be the perfect protector for little lost Rory,” said Logan harshly. “C’mon, man, offering her access to the Mariano Library which just happens to be in your bedroom. Being there for her when she got upset, making all those plans for her birthday. Newsflash, Jess, you’re not married!”

“Oh so now my being nice to our new room-mate that we really need to keep if we want to make rent and have enough spare cash for everything else, makes me what? Some kind of Casanova who's out to screw you over?”

“Please!” Logan rolled his eyes. “You wish you were Casanova. When was the last time a woman even gave you the time of day?”

“Unlike some people, I have a little more in my life than banging the nearest bimbo to make myself feel better about being a failure!”

“Oh, because you’re so damn successful! How’s the book selling, Jess? Got past the first ten copies yet?”

“Ten copies of a book is worth more than an internet company that never even launched! Not so easy without Daddy Dearest to keep you on track, is it?”

“At least I met my father before I was twenty one!”

That was one insult too far. Jess lost his temper in a moment, fist catching Logan’s nose with a sickening crunch and almost knocking him down.

“You feel better for that?” he yelled, knowing he could easily hit back but there was blood running down his face and a ringing in his ears that wouldn’t quit.

Getting into a real fist fight here wasn’t the answer. Besides, as much as there was no way he was going to admit it right now, Logan knew he had gone way too far by mentioning Jimmy like that. He deserved the hit, and he would take it like a man.

“You’re an asshole, Huntzberger,” said Jess angrily, before storming out of the apartment and slamming the door behind him.

“Yeah,” said Logan, wiping his face on his T-shirt since there was nothing else to hand. “Well, maybe I’m not the only one.”


	12. Chapter 12

There was a weird vibe in the apartment, a tension that was inescapable. Rory had been aware of it all week long, or maybe since Tuesday, after all she spent most of Monday feeling the effects of a hangover. No more drinking, at least not to that kind of excess. From now on just one or two, preferably with food, and mostly not when she had work the next day.

When Tuesday came, Rory felt better. She thought everything was fine, until the evening anyway. She watched with confusion as Jess came into the room and Logan promptly got up and left. Something similar occurred the next day, but in reverse. The guys would pass by each other in silence, not a word spoken or smile exchanged. By Thursday it was too much, she had to ask what was going on. Unfortunately, neither Jess nor Logan seemed willing to talk, both telling her nothing was wrong, everything was just fine. She didn’t believe it. She wondered if whatever was happening with them was connected to the sticking plaster that had been present on Logan’s nose the past few days, but that was apparently nothing as well.

The weekend came, and Rory had hoped things would be patched up by now. Both Logan and Jess seemed to be out most of Saturday, whether for work or for pleasure, Rory wasn’t sure. When Sunday came, she really didn’t want to venture out of her bedroom to find out if things were any better. She hung out reading and catching up on a couple of emails until mid-morning, then decided to call her mom. Lorelai was good with relationship advice of all kinds, so doubtless she would know what to do when you were sharing space with a pair of guys who were apparently not getting along so well.

“It’s so weird. I mean, last Sunday everybody was fine, as far as I know. Me and Logan got back from the club, both a little happy from the booze...”

“Happy?” her mother questioned. “Rory, sweetie, were you maybe drunk?”

“Logan was,” she admitted. “I was... happy.”

“Okay, sticking with happy,” Lorelai said with a smile her daughter could just hear. “Then what happened?”

“Well, Logan wanted to go out again, but I said no. Jess said no also, and he helped Logan into his room, then I went to bed. Next day I wasn’t exactly feeling great, so maybe I missed something, but Tuesday they just weren’t speaking and I don’t think anything’s changed since. I mean, you met them, they’re both nice guys. They had this whole brotherly love thing going on, it was actually really sweet.”

“And now stony silence?”

“Apparently.”

“You think Jess has a problem with Logan’s drinking?”

“I don’t think that’s it.” Rory sighed. “He does drink a lot sometimes, from what I’ve seen, but Jess never got mad at him before, just kind of rolled his eyes and let him be. I just can’t understand it. What else would they fight over?”

“Oh, Rory, sweetie! C’mon, you’re not this naive.”

Lorelai sounded amazed that Rory had failed to figure out what the problem was. Honestly, she just couldn’t see what she was missing. Not knowing the guys as well as she might, Rory was sure there were probably a hundred and one isues they might have fought over, but her mom seemed pretty sure she should know.

“What am I missing?” she asked in earnest.

Lorelai laughed. “Twenty three years old and still adorable,” she said, more to herself than to Rory, it seemed. “Babe, is it possible we have a jealousy situation going on?” she checked. “I mean, you think maybe Jess didn’t like you going out with Logan?”

“Why would he...? No!” she said after the sudden realisation hit. “No, Jess doesn’t like me that way, and neither does Logan. That’s crazy talk!”

“Is it?” asked Lorelai seriously. “I mean, c’mon, babe. Take a look in the mirror. In the words of Jack Jericho, ‘face of a Boticelli, body of a Degas’. Besides that, you’re whip smart, you got your mother’s wit and your daddy’s encyclopaedic knowledge of classic rock. You are, hands down, one of the nicest people in the whole world, and I’m guessing both of these dudes have seen you in at least a semi state of undress by now?”

“Mom!” Rory gasped at the implication, though she hadn’t exactly hated all the compliments that came before.

“Honey, I’m not accusing you of anything. I’m just saying, you guys live together. Sometimes people forget to put on a shirt or they hop out of their room in the middle of the night for a snack in just their nightwear.”

“The guys do that. I don’t.”

“The guys do?” asked Lorelai curiously. “See anything good?”

Rory coloured at the very thought, even though nobody could see her.

“Put it this way, those two belong on a calendar. The fireman kind.”

“Woo hoo!” Lorelai giggled like a teen. “But seriously, honey, are you sure that these boys aren’t freezing each other out in a big battle for who gets the babe?”

“I... It seems really fat-headed if I say yes,” she realised aloud. “But I guess, maybe... I don’t know. I hope not,” she said at last. “I would hate their friendship to be ruined just because I moved in, I’d feel horrible.”

“And we’re back to the part where you’re one of the nicest people on the planet,” her mother confirmed. “Rory, the truth is, I don’t know Logan or Jess as well as you do, but from what you’ve been telling me the past few weeks, they both really seem to like you. That whole thing for your birthday? Truly awesome. Worthy of something I would do. That alone proves you’re a big deal in their lives.”

“But friends do stuff like that, right?”

“Maybe best friends,” said Lorelai. “Or boyfriends.”

“Oh God!” Rory face planted right into her pillow, her voice muffled when she tried to speak again. “I can’t believe I did this.”

“Honey, you didn’t do it, or at the very least, you didn’t mean to,” her mother told her, hoping it was of some comfort. “And hey, if these guys can’t figure out their feelings for you and their friendship for each other, that isn’t your fault either.”

Rory sat up on the bed. “I guess it’s not. So, what now?”

“Well, step one is figuring out how you feel about them.”

“I... I like them, both of them,” said Rory as truthfully as she could. “Sometimes I... Well, y’know how you sometimes do that thing where you wonder what it’d be like to date Chris Hemsworth or 90’s Christian Slater? I mean, I’ve done that, with Jess and Logan.”

“And?”

“And, I guess I liked the idea of it, both of them. Separately, obviously,” she clarified, “but it was just daydreams. I don’t know that I would actually do it. Go out with either of them, romantically.”

“Well, then, maybe that’s for the best, hon,” said Lorelai easily. “If you can get Jess and Logan to tell you what the problem is and it does turn out to be a fight for your honour or affections or whatever, at least you can put a stop to it. No point fighting for a prize that doesn’t want to be won.”

“That is true,” said Rory thoughtfully. “Is it wrong that I feel just a little happy about being a prize that two guys are potentially fighting over?”

Lorelai laughed. “No, kid. I’m pretty sure that’s normal."

* * *

It was much later in the day when Rory heard the front door open and close with a slam. She knew Jess was already in his room so now Logan must be home also. Her suspicions were confirmed when she heard his bedroom door open and close in the same way. Now was the time. She really needed to talk to them both, get them to talk to each other if she could, and figure out what had driven a wedge between them, even if it did turn out to be her.

Rushing out of her room, she knocked on both their doors one after the other. Both Jess and Logan answered their doors in unison and looked awkwardly from Rory to each other.

“I need to talk to you,” she said quickly. “Both of you. Now. Please?”

It was clear neither of the guys were keen, but they did come out of their rooms when asked and into the living room where Rory waited. Logan moved to sit in the armchair, whilst Jess perched on the far end of the couch. Rory stayed standing between the coffee table and the fake fireplace so she could address them both equally.

“Okay,” she said eventually. “So, things are... Well, there’s an atmosphere lately. I’ve noticed it because, hey, not blind or stupid. So, I thought maybe we could have kind of a meeting. A room-mate gathering, if you prefer, and air our differences or whatever it is that needs to be aired.”

“Ace”, Logan sighed, running a hand over his face. “We don’t need this. Everything is fine.”

“No, it’s not fine,” she insisted. “I’ve been walking on eggshells since at least Tuesday, and I can’t do it anymore, so please, will you tell me what is going on with you two?”

Logan shook his head and got to his feet. “I’m out!” he declared, grabbing his jacket and keys as he headed for the door. He was gone before Rory could blink.

“Fine, you tell me,” she urged Jess. “Please, just tell me why you guys can’t be in a room together anymore. You were so close-”

“Let it go, Rory!” Jess snapped, cutting her off mid sentence as he too leapt to his feet. “Just, please,” he said more reasonably then, apparently noticing the hurt cross her face, “let it go.”

“Fine,” she said, just as snippily, though she wasn’t really done yet.

Ducking into her room, she returned within seconds, pulling on her jacket and flipping her hair out over the collar. She said not a word to Jess, just stormed out of the door the same way Logan had done, slamming the door behind her. The elevator arrived just as she reached it, and Rory headed down to the ground floor. She headed right outside and was surprised to realise Logan had got no further than the front steps. She practically tripped over him, but managed to stop herself just in time.

“You went a long way,” she said, full of sarcasm that caused at least a small smile from Logan.

“Forgot my wallet,” he muttered, shifting over on the step. “Care to sit?”

“That depends,” said Rory, arms folded and foot taping when Logan glanced up at her. “Are you going to tell me what’s going on?”

Logan met her eyes, searching for some hint that she was kidding or at least putting on a front. She had to know what he problem was here. As she said before, she wasn’t stupid. Still, if she suspected, it wasn’t showing. Seemed Logan was going to have to lay it on the line for her. Couldn’t hurt, bedsides, any gentlemen’s agreement he may have had with Jess was probably null and void since the punching incident.

“Jess didn’t like our little outing Sunday night,” he said, figuring it was as good a place as any to begin.

“Okay,” said Rory, sitting down beside him. “But he isn’t treating me like a leper, only you.”

“Yeah, well,” Logan smiled. “The problem isn’t so much you going with me, it’s me going out with you. We had an agreement.”

“An agreement? About me?” Rory checked, not entirely sure she liked where this was going.

“Look, Rory, it’s real simple. When we started looking for a room-mate, we knew there was a vague chance that room-mate would end up being female. Should she be in any way desirable to either Jess or myself, the deal was, neither of us would act on that kind of attraction.”

“Attraction?” Rory echoed, swallowing hard,

It seemed maybe her mom had been right, though she wasn’t quite sure what to do with the confirmation. She was flattered, obviously, but this was really quite weird to hear.

“The truth is, Jess likes you, and the suggestion that you might be closer to me than to him is what ultimately caused the blow-out.”

“And the bruise on your face?” she checked, almost daring to let her fingers reach out and touch the fading bruise at the bridge of his nose, but never actually making contact.

“That was actually a thoughtless remark on my part, and not about you,” Logan confirmed. “It was the end of the fight, but you were the beginning.”

Rory took a moment to think, shaking her head.

“I... I’m sorry?” she tried. “I mean, if I’ve caused problems-”

“It’s not your fault, Ace,” Logan was quick to assure her, his hand on her knee without him even thinking it through. “You have done nothing except be beautiful and charming and friendly,” he promised.

“When you say it like that, it makes me think you like me too,” she said, mostly joking, at least until she glanced up and met his eyes.

She should have moved, or maybe just said that she wasn’t interested, that would probably have worked too. Instead she just sat there, staring into Logan’s eyes as he gazed intently back at her, his hand still resting on her knee, his body moving closer. Rory was hardly aware of what was happening until suddenly Logan’s lips were on hers, kissing her firmly. For a moment, she lost control. He was a hell of a kisser and it had been a while. Though she didn’t exactly respond, it took a few seconds before Rory’s brain caught up with the rest of her and she shoved Logan away with a force.

“No!” she said definitely. “No, I didn’t... What did you think you were doing?” she asked, dragging the back of her hand over her swollen lips.

Logan sighed and shook his head. “Whatever,” he muttered as he got up and walked away down the street.


	13. Chapter 13

Rory had been glad to get back in the apartment and find Jess had retreated to his room. After what just happened with Logan, knowing that Jess liked her too, it would be a little too much to deal with. Rory decided hiding in her room wouldn’t be a bad plan either; it seemed the safest place to be right now. She considered calling someone, her mom or Lane, even Paris. She needed someone to tell her what to do, because right now she had no clue how to deal. It would be tough enough if one of her room-mates had a crush on her, but both of them? And they were fighting over her already? It was flattering, that was for certain, but Rory could do without it. She had hoped to live here happily and peacefully, no dramas. For the first few weeks it’d been fine, but now, Rory wasn’t sure if she should even stay. The problem was, she couldn’t think of an alternative. It had taken forever to find this apartment and it was perfect for her. To try to find another now, she really wasn’t sure she could stand it.

Venturing out of her room only twice that evening to grab food and visit the bathroom, Rory started to draw up several of her legendary pro-con lists. It was how she made all the important decisions in her life, from which college to attend, to whether or not she wanted to date a guy. Now she had at least three in the works, and eventually ended up falling asleep beneath ‘Should I date Jess?’, ‘Should I date Logan?’, and ‘Should I move out?’ amongst others that night.

When the alarm went off the next morning, Rory wasn’t ready for it. She woke with a jump from a strange dream in which she was back in Stars Hollow, walking through the town square, only to find Jess and Logan waiting for her by the gazebo. Just as she got close to them, both pulled swords from behind their backs and began fighting, apparently for her honour or her hand in marriage or something else that might be said in an Austen novel. She had woken up before she saw who won the battle, and what Rory remembered most was screaming for them to stop and that she never asked for this to happen.

“Doesn’t matter now,” she muttered to herself, moving to get out of bed and dislodging her pro-con lists from the night before.

Rory barely glanced at her scribbled notes, gathering up the papers and putting them to one side. She needed to get a shower, get dressed, eat some breakfast and get to the office. Those were the priorities right now and everything else could wait until later. It was unlikely she would run across either of the guys until after work anyway.

She had made it as far as putting the coffee machine on and throwing her Pop Tart in the toaster, before anyone showed their face. Rory turned sharply when she heard footsteps, unsure why she felt so startled. She was pretty sure that Jess was at home, even if Logan might be working. It was probably just the weird atmosphere that existed still, and the new knowledge that both guys were not just looking at her as a room-mate or a friend, but as a potential date.

“Oh, hi, Jess,” she greeted him awkwardly, waving a little.

She looked at her own raised hand and wondered why she even did that. Her arm dropped back to her side and she concentrated on waiting for her Pop Tart to be ready.

“Hey, Rory,” said Jess as he approached her across the small room. “I, er, I’m sorry, about yesterday-”

“Forget it,” she told him, cutting him off in a second.

She turned around, abandoning her breakfast as she pushed past Jess, grabbing a coffee within a second and escaping out the door to the living room.

“I don’t wanna forget it!” Jess called after her, giving chase. He lowered his voice when he remembered Logan might be asleep beyond a door just feet await. “Rory, I... I’m sorry,” he told her, his hand at her elbow from when he had reached out to keep her from bolting to her room. “I shouldn’t’ve snapped at you like I did. None of this is your fault.”

“No, it’s not,” she agreed, shrugging her arm from his light grip, “but I know you didn’t mean to upset me. It’s fine,” she assured him with a smile. “I just don’t like the atmosphere here lately, it makes me feel so uncomfortable, and that is no way to live.”

“Agreed.” Jess nodded, hating to see her look so awkward. “Logan and me, we shouldn’t take our problems out on you.”

Rory bit her lip. This was just awful. She really wished she had made it out the door to work without seeing Jess, or Logan for that matter. Knowing they both liked her, that she had caused this terrible rift, neither piece of information sat well with her. It was flattering to be liked in that way, but not at the expense of the happy home she thought she had found here.

“You’re right,” she told Jess, gaze mostly on the carpet to begin with, until she realised she had to make herself meet his eyes. “You shouldn’t take out your problems on me, but if the problem involves me, then I’d rather know.”

It was his turn to look away then. Jess seemed suddenly very interested in his shoes. Honestly, Rory wasn’t sure why she said it the way she had. Maybe it was confirmation she was looking for, proof that Jess really did like her. Logan had made it plain that he did, but that hadn’t meant quite so much to Rory. Logan seemed to like all women, at least the ones willing to sleep with him, and there were no shortage of those. Rory wasn’t sure how she made that list, since she sure hadn’t given any indication that she wanted into his bed. In fact, she had quite definitely told him that she was not that kind of woman. Jess had always been kind to Rory, a little flirty, she supposed, but nothing to make her think he had those type of feelings for her. He never propositioned her, never gave any indication he wanted to be more than friends. Strangely, that made him more attractive rather than less, though now probably wasn’t the time to think about it.

“Jess?” she prompted when he didn’t speak.

He glanced up to look at her then but whatever might’ve been said was lost in a second. Logan’s bedroom door seemed to open of its own accord, and out stepped a woman. She had shapely legs, with feet that were being hastily shoved into black stiletto heels by perfectly manicured hands. None of that was really a surprise to Rory, but the face that appeared in the next moment truly was.

“Marnie?”

“Oh. Hello, Rory, darling,” said her friend with a smile as she stood straight and carefully closed the door behind her. “And this must be the bookworm” she said, looking Jess up and down. “Jess, I presume?” she checked, as she fastened her hair up with a band from her wrist.

“That’s me,” Jess confirmed with a single nod.

“Marnie Jones, work colleague of your room-mate here,” the stranger introduced herself, coming over with a hand out-stretched to shake Jess’ own. A second later she was looking at Rory again. “Wouldn’t happen to have a cup of that for me, would you, darling?”

Shaking her head, Rory tried her best to snap out of a daze. “Um, sure, yeah,” she said, hurrying back into the kitchen.

Once again, Jess went after her. “Rory...”

“Jess, I really don’t have time to talk right now!” she told him crossly, pouring a second cup of coffee just as fast as she could.

She returned to the living room and handed Marnie her drink, which her friend gratefully received.

“Drink and walk,” Rory urged her, grabbing her jacket and purse and ushering Marnie towards the door.

“Oh, right, yes,” she replied, as Rory showed her the watch at her wrist - if they didn’t go now, they were going to be late.

Honestly, Rory was almost glad of the distraction Marnie had made, though a part of her wondered what might have been said or done by Jess if they had a moment longer together. No use wondering, she supposed, at least not now. There was work to be done, and Rory only hoped Marnie was ready to concentrate on the same thing. The last thing she needed this morning was any kind of in-depth discussion on the wonders of sex with Logan Huntzberger.

* * *

When Jess got in from work later, he wasn’t sure if he was going to find Logan there or not, and honestly didn’t know which outcome he would prefer. The living room was empty when Jess came into it, then there was movement in the bathroom and Logan strolled out. He looked altogether too happy to see Jess.

“Hey, the worker bee returns,” he grinned. “How’s things, Jess?”

“Oh, that’s how we’re gonna play this now?” his friend asked him. “All buddy-buddy like nothing ever happened?”

“Excuse me, but weren’t you the guy that gave me the bloody nose?” asked Logan, arms folded across his chest. “Shouldn’t you be grateful that I’m not looking for revenge?”

“You know why I hit you, and it had nothing to do with Rory.”

“I don’t recollect mentioning Rory in this conversation, although in the spirit of full disclosure, you should probably know, I kissed her last night.”

The look on Jess’ face was a picture, a painful one at that. It wasn’t why Logan said it exactly, more that he really did think they needed to get some things out in the open here.

“As you may have guessed, she wasn’t altogether open to my advances,” he continued, throwing his weight down into the armchair.

“Hence the woman from her work,” said Jess, as the pieces all clicked into place.

If Rory knocked him back, Logan wasn’t looking for any payback on Jess particularly. If anything, he wanted to see if he could hurt Rory. Sleeping with Marnie would probably have an impact of some kind, even if it wasn’t making Rory jealous. She was unlikely to appreciate realising two of her new friends had made the beast of two-backs, and within hours of Logan kissing her too.

“You’re losing that class you’re so fond of, Huntzberger,” said Jess, taking a seat on the couch. “You know that, right?”

“Depends on your definition of class,” his friend shrugged, hands going up behind his head as he relaxed into his seat. “Y’know, for what it’s worth, I am sorry for that crack about Jimmy the other day. That was low.”

Jess shook his head. “I’m sorry for the punch.”

“Hey, don’t be, I deserved it,” Logan told him. “Maybe you could give me a few pointers some time. That’s a hell of a right hook you have there.”

Jess smirked at the compliment, he couldn’t help it. It had only been a week since he and Logan had their fight, and quite honestly, he had missed this. The talking, the banter, what Rory would call their brotherly connection. It was good to have it back.

“So, you kissed Rory,” he said, trying to get the words out without wincing.

“And she was not happy,” Logan confirmed. “How about you?”

“I didn’t kiss her.”

“But you thought about it.”

“Seriously? You’ve seen her. Pretty sure any guy that ever did thought about it.”

It was Logan’s turn to smirk then. “Yeah, she’s got the looks, but it’s more than that.”

“It really is,” Jess agreed with a sigh, hand rubbing across his forehead. “So, what do we do now?”

Logan sighed too. “Man, if I knew, I’d tell you.”


	14. Chapter 14

“The boy isn’t exactly athletic, but he has stamina, I’ll give him that.”

Rory heard what Marnie was saying to Phillip and immediately turned around to exit the break room the way she had come in. They were discussing Marnie’s hot night with Logan, she just knew it, and Rory wasn’t prepared to listen to the details. It gave her an uncomfortableness that she chose not to examine too closely, and would probably be forced to if she sat down with her friends right now.

“Rory!” Philip called to her. “C’mon, come join us,” he urged her. “I’ll put a gag on Marn if I have to.”

Taking a deep breath and letting it out loudly, Rory turned to walk back to the table. she slumped down into the spare chair, eyeing Marnie warily.

“What do you want, darling? Bloody Guides’ Honour?” she offered, making a salute with one hand. “You don’t want to hear what’s under the hood of your delectable room-mate then so be it.”

“Really don’t,” said Rory snippily, opening up the paper bag she had from the deli and digging into her lunch.

“Y’know as snotty as you’re being about all of this, Gilmore, you’re making me wonder if you’re jealous,” said Marnie, in quite a similarly cutting tone.

“C’mon, Marn.” Phillip rolled his eyes. “Rory already told us she doesn’t like Logan that way, and I’m pretty sure we agreed to believe her.”

“Marnie, I really don’t care if you want to sleep with Logan every night for the rest of your life, or if it was a one off and you had the best time ever swinging from the chandelier,” said Rory, shaking her head. “I would just like to eat my lunch in peace without talk of anybody else’s sexcapades, okay?”

She was being a brat and she knew it. Rory was well aware that it was unreasonable for her to be so mad about two of her new friends sleeping together, but the fact of the matter was she really didn’t like it. The only thing she disliked more was that she couldn’t explain the unpleasant taste it all left in her mouth, without admitting she must have some kind of feelings for Logan, and that was never going to happen.

“I don’t have the energy for this today,” said Marnie, leaving the table suddenly.

“You’re not following her?” Rory asked Philip.

“Despite what Marnie might think, I’m nobody’s lap dog.” Phillip rolled his eyes, moving into Marnie’s vacated chair, closer to Rory. “What’s up, sweet pea? ‘Cause something has your panties all up in a bunch. If it’s not Marnie’s latest conquest, then what is it?”

He was being so nice, and Rory felt she needed that right now. All the people she would usually turn to at times like this were only available by phone, and even then not right now. Philip was here and willing to try to help her, or at the very least listen if she needed to vent. She appreciated it a lot.

“I don’t know,” she said, abandoning her food for the moment, “or maybe I do know and that’s the real problem. Logan likes me, so does Jess, they both pretty much told me so. Well, actually, Logan told me, and then he kissed me.”

“Wait a second, before or after Marnie?” checked Philip, feeling a little turned around after so many revelations in quick succession.

“Before,” Rory confirmed. “I can’t prove it, but I’d like to bet the sleeping with Marnie was to get back at me somehow for telling him no when he made a move on me.”

“And the plot thickens,” Philip said, shaking his head. “So, Jess likes you too?”

“Logan says yes. Jess never told me that himself, but I get the feeling it could be true. It would explain a lot.”

“How do you feel about him?”

Rory opened her mouth and then closed it again fast. She thought she knew the answer to that question until recently. She thought she knew a lot of things, but apparently she was wrong, especially where either of her room-mates were concerned.

“I don’t know,” she said eventually. “I like him, in a friends way, the same way I like Logan. They’re both such nice guys and I’m not going to deny that it’s no hardship to stare at them, with or without the shirts,” she said smiling and blushing at the same time, neither of which she had any control over right now. “But I can’t just... I want everything to be how it was. I want us all to be friends and room-mates, not all complicated like this,” she said, frustratedly banging her fists on the table - it didn’t help.

“Relationships are always complicated sweetheart,” said Philip sagely, “and friendships between opposing genders rarely work out, unless at least one of them rides my bus.”

“But I hate it!” Rory declared dramatically, head dropping onto his shoulder.

“I’m sorry, Ror,” he said, an arm around her back. “Gotta be a bitch when two hot, lovable guys have ‘the feelings’ for you.”

Rory buried her face in his shoulder, feeling stupid. “I’m pathetic.”

“No, not pathetic. Maybe a little ungrateful,” Philip considered, smirking because he couldn’t help it when Rory looked up at him. “I’m kidding,” he promised her.

“But you do have a point,” she agreed. “Most women would kill to have this much male attention, but I never asked for it, and even if I did want to date either Jess or Logan, I couldn’t. If they’re already fighting, literally punching each other, just over liking me, one of them would probably end up in a hospital if anything ever really happened.”

Philip wished he knew what to say to make her feel better, but he didn’t. Every word she said was true, and that meant Rory was in a real pickle right about now. Unfortunately, nothing was going to get solved without a talk between those that lived in the apartment. It had to be settled once and for all, and they could only make the decisions that needed to be made together.

“I hate to tell you this, sweetheart, but I think the only way you’re going to fix this is to talk it out with your boys,” he said, hugging her close. “It probably won’t be a fun conversation, but it’s gotta be done.”

“I guess.” Rory sighed. “Or I could move out, secretly, in the middle of the night. Maybe come move in with you?” she tried, only half joking.

Philip laughed. “In my broom closet boudoir?” he said, one eyebrow raised. “Sorry, honey. No can do.”

That meant Rory did have only the one choice, to talk to Jess and Logan about their feelings as well as her own, and about their living situation. It was most definitely not going to be fun.

* * *

“You sure about this?” asked Jess as he and Logan waited in the living room for Rory to get home.

“C’mon, man, as much as I hate the idea of ‘the talk’ it’s gotta be had,” his room-mate reminded him. “Right now, Rory isn’t exactly happy with either of us, and none of us can go on living on a knife edge. Everything has to be out in the open. It’s better for everyone.”

“Your therapist teach you that?” said Jess, a smile suggesting he was kidding but it was probably true, he considered.

“One of them, maybe.” Logan nodded, smiling just the same. “I lost track after a while.”

Rory walked in the door the very next moment and looked startled to see both guys waiting for her.

“Hi,” she said awkwardly, unsure whether she should continue on to her room or stop in the living room.

“Hey, Ace,” Logan replied, getting to his feet. “We, er... we were hoping to talk to you.”

“Strange coincidence,” she nodded. “Kinda had the same idea.”

“Works out well,” Jess agreed, moving to the couch alongside Logan and gesturing that Rory should take the armchair - somehow in the circumstances it seemed safer.

In spite of the fact that they were all of the same mind when it came to a talk, nobody spoke for fully five minutes once they were seated together. Eventually the pressure got to Rory and she kind of exploded.

“I want things to be how they were,” she said all in a rush. “I... I like living here, and you guys are both so great. I like that we’re all friends, it works. The apartment is good, and I don’t know where I would ever find a better place or better room-mates. So please, can we just agree to have things be like they were before?”

She stared first at Logan then at Jess, waiting for them to give a response, any response at all, but for a while none came. They were both thinking about what she was saying, it seemed. Both considering whether they could agree to those particular terms, maybe.

“Is it that simple?” asked Jess after a while, looking at Logan. “After what happened with you two?”

“Nothing really happened,” said his friend, brushing it off like it was no big deal. “I kissed Rory and she wasn’t impressed. No offence, Ace,” he continued, turning to her then, “but I’m not about to spend a month locked in my room, listening to the soundtrack from The Virgin Suicides, and contemplating ending it all.”

“I wouldn’t want you to,” said Rory definitely. “Although I was a little surprised that your actual response was to go out and sleep with my friend from work.”

“And that’s because you don’t know him well enough yet,” said Jess, rolling his eyes. “Logan’s response to needing to feel better is usually one of two things, and beer costs money.”

“Hey!” Logan said sharply, before he saw the look on Jess’ face. “Yeah, okay, so you do have a point, but I’m young and free. Who am I hurting?”

It seemed like a rhetorical question, and honestly, neither Jess nor Rory had an answer for it anyway. If the women who slept with Logan were well aware that they were a one night stand, and that did seem to be how it worked for the most part, he really wasn’t doing any harm, so long as he was sensible about protection. Rory thought it but didn’t say it, since she had no wish to start a discussion on birth control and STD prevention on top of all the other awkwardness!

“I was just shocked to see Marnie, that’s all. It made me uncomfortable,” she admitted instead. “She’s my work friend and this is my home and... it was weird.”

“I’m sorry you were uncomfortable, Ace,” said Logan seriously, his hand on her arm. “I swear, I did not sleep with Marnie to upset you, or in some misguided attempt to make you jealous, whatever it might be construed as. She was at a bar, she was a vaguely familiar face, we both had kind of a bad day and it happened. It was not about you.”

Rory looked as if she believed him, but Jess wasn’t entirely convinced. He kept his thoughts to himself on that one, because saying anything would only further complicate matters. They were looking for peace here, not another fight or an additional week of awkwardness in the apartment.

“And I’m sorry for how I reacted when you kissed me,” Rory apologised in kind. “Not that I regret telling you it wasn’t going to happen, because that’s not the kind of relationship I want with you, Logan, but I probably could have been a little calmer about it.”

“No problem to me, Ace,” he assured her.

Both of them looked at Jess then. He hadn’t said much and that was entirely deliberate. Sharing feelings was not something he did as a rule. He would rather not admit to having any if he could help it. Unfortunately, he was kind of in a corner now. If he explained how he really felt about Rory, that was going to create more problems than it solved given what she had already said about not wanting to be any more than friends with him or Logan. Lying seemed to be the only option, but he wasn’t used to doing that with Logan, and he didn’t really want to do it to Rory either.

“So, back to how we were before,” he said, shrugging his shoulders. “Everybody friends, nobody trying for anything else.”

The summarising of the situation seemed to work, as Rory and Logan nodded their agreement. Nobody called Jess on the fact he hadn’t said anything about his own feelings or even thoughts on what had occurred, and that suited him fine.

“And you two are okay now?” Rory checked. “There’s not going to be anymore yelling or punching?”

“I can promise if you can,” said Logan, turning to Jess with his hand out for him to take.

“Deal,” he agreed, shaking on it.

When they looked to Rory she was smiling. “Good,” she said, letting out a sigh of apparent relief. “Thank you, guys, for understanding. You’re both great, honestly, and I am more than glad I moved in here, but it’s friends I was looking for, not a date.”

“We got it,” said Jess, forcing a smile that didn’t come naturally.

“It’s fine, Rory. We’re all on the same page now, no more misunderstandings,” Logan agreed.

Rory nodded once, got up from her chair and went to her room. She called over her shoulder that she was going to call out for pizza and asking if either of the guys wanted to join her. Logan answered for himself and then for Jess as well when his buddy slammed out of the apartment door. He had muttered something about needing a cigarette and Logan wasn’t sure what to make of his behaviour. If he didn’t know better, he would think that Jess didn’t just have it in his head to want to date Rory, but a whole lot more besides. Bringing it up with her would cause more trouble, and asking Jess about it would lead to another of those fights they just promised not to have.

“So much for clearing the air,” said Logan to himself.

This so wasn’t over.


	15. Chapter 15

Three weeks. That’s how long it had been and finally things seemed to have settled into a routine, something akin to how it had been before the blow out. Logan was certain that Rory thought everything was normal now, no problems whatsoever, and that was cool. The problem was, he knew better. Jess was not himself, not entirely. He talked a good game, smiled and chatted, acted like he was fine, but when you knew somebody as well as the guys knew each other, you could tell when things were just off.

Jess was smoking more. The smell was following him into the apartment more often than it wasn’t. Extra cigarettes meant he was stressed and unhappy. Logan would lay all the money he used to have on the fact that Jess was hurting over Rory, that he wanted more than friendship from her and it was killing him by degrees knowing that was off the table. If he could do anything about it, Logan would, for everybody’s sake, but he really didn’t know where to start. Talking to Rory was a no go. She made it clear she didn’t want that kind of relationship with either of her room-mates and it would be unfair to bring it up again. Talking to Jess would pretty much be suicidal. The guy didn’t do feelings at the best of times, and pushing him on a topic like that, on a problem that couldn’t really be solved, it wouldn’t be fair.

It all left Logan in the middle of a tense situation that he really didn’t care for, at least for a while. Today was maybe the first day when the air seemed slightly more breathable, the atmosphere just that much easier. When Logan walked into the apartment after work, he found Rory and Jess at either end of the couch, arguing over the great Ernest Hemingway in that cute bantery way they had in the beginning.

“Hey, don’t let me interrupt the epic debate,” he said, hands held up in mock-surrender when he suddenly realised he had everyone’s attention. “I’m guessing I’d be safer in my room than picking a side.”

“I don’t know, man. I think maybe you should stay,” said Jess with a smirk he couldn’t help.

“Huh!” Rory scoffed. “You’re only saying that because you probably already know that he’s going to be on your side!”

“And definitely escaping to my room now,” Logan concluded, making a quick retreat through the door before another word was spoken.

“Coward!” Jess called behind him.

Rory laughed, she couldn’t help it.

“I guess I should just accept that we’re never going to agree on Hemingway... or Rand,” she said thoughtfully. “There are plenty of authors that we both like, how do we always end up talking about the ones we can’t see eye to eye on?”

“I don’t know,” said Jess, shaking his head. “Maybe the lively debate is more fun than sharing effusive praise.”

He looked up at the same moment Rory did, their eyes meeting quite accidentally. Jess usually wore a smirk when he was kidding, but sometimes, like right now, there was a genuine smile on his face. Rory loved that open look that he so rarely wore, and therefore was so much more worth getting him to reveal. She caught herself staring and smiling too wide, stopping immediately.

“Er, I always lost in debates in school,” she said, looking away very deliberately. “Unless Paris and me were paired up, instead of against each other, then we could not be stopped.”

“She sounds fun.”

“She’s Paris.” Rory shrugged. “Kind of hard to define, but a really good friend. I miss her sometimes. I miss a lot of people. I mean, being here is great and I feel like I really settled in at The Times and here in the apartment, but...”

“It’s not home yet?” Jess supplied, sure that was what she meant to say.

“I’m sorry,” Rory apologised, looking down at her own hands in her lap. “It seems so bad to say that, after the way you and Logan have done everything to make me feel welcome and comfortable.”

“Hey, it’s no big deal to us,” he assured her. “I can’t say that I understand what you’re feeling exactly. This is the only real home I ever had, but from what you’ve told us about Stars Hollow and your family and everything, I’m not surprised that you miss it.”

“Well, I’ll be going back soon, for a few days anyway.” Rory smiled happily at the thought. “Not long now until Thanksgiving.”

“I guess not,” Jess agreed, recalling the date.

This coming Thursday would indeed be the holiday. Jess knew it, though it was never much in the way of a special occasion for him or Logan. There were times when they worked the whole weekend for extra cash, others when they actually got the day itself off and spent it at home. Either way, it would be nothing like the way Rory was probably used to spending the holiday.

“I’ll bet Lorelai is looking forward to seeing you.”

“She’s ridiculously excited.” Rory rolled her eyes. “Not that I’m exactly hating the idea of getting back to the Hollow. Um, what will you and Logan do?”

“Same thing we do every year, I guess. Assuming we’re not working, it’ll be microwaved dinners and beers in front of the TV.”

“For Thanksgiving?” asked Rory, eyes wide.

“I’m sorry, you were expecting turkey with all the trimmings, a four piece band, and fireworks?” countered Jess, clearly amused by her shock.

Rory felt so stupid. Of course that was all the holidays would be for Jess and Logan. Thanksgiving was a time for family and friends, for going home to to your loved ones and all. Neither of the guys had anyone to head to or anywhere to go. They only had each other and this apartment, not exactly an over-abundance of funds, and a short list of things to be thankful for much of the time, she supposed.

“I... I’m sorry,” she muttered.

“Hey, it’s fine” Jess promised her, ashamed of his joke now that she looked so sad about it. “Seriously, Rory, me and Logan will be fine. Don’t worry about it.”

She excused herself to her room within ten minutes and Jess liteally face-palmed the moment she was gone. He was such an idiot. They’d been having a really good conversation up to the point where he behaved like a complete jackass. Poor Rory, she was just trying to be kind and friendly, and he had to screw it up. He seemed to do that a lot lately. Sometimes he thought it’d be better if he spent no time with her at all, but he tried that and avoiding her altogether just about killed him. Jess decided to try to be normal, to be a reasonable level of friendly and stick to topics that didn’t run too deep, that couldn’t accidentally land him in trouble. Clearly that wasn’t working out too well for him.

Getting up, he headed to his own room then and closed the door with a little more force than was strictly necessary. He leaned back against the door and exhaled loudly. Sometimes there was just this overwhelming urge in him to walk right up to Rory, take a hold of her and just kiss her until neither of them could breathe anymore. As plans went, he figured he’d had worse in his time. Of course that would be breaking deals he had not just with Logan but with Rory too. Besides, if her reaction to Logan making that kind of move was anything to go by, he wouldn’t be met with joy from Rory if he tried it.

Throwing himself down on the bed, Jess reached for his notebook and pen and started scribbling. At least his heartache was good for one thing. It was doing wonders for his writing at the moment. Tortured souls made for good prose. A couple more weeks of this and he was bound to have his second novel completed. At least Matt and Chris would be happy.

* * *

When Rory emerged from her room, she found Logan on the couch, feet up and a beer in his hand, watching TV. At least he seemed to be watching, on closer inspection he was just flipping through the channels and apparently finding nothing he wanted to look at.

“We live in a world where TV has more channels than ever before, so how is it that there’s nothing to watch on any of them?”

“Quantity over quality, never a good thing,” said Rory absently, eyes now fixed on Jess’ bedroom door. “Um, is he in there?” she gestured.

Logan followed her finger to Jess’ door and shrugged

“Far as I know,” he said. “Hey, Jess?” he called loudly. “Man, get out here!”

“What?” asked Jess, sticking his head out of the door and pushing his hair back off his face - he was clearly unimpressed by being summoned. “You lose the use of your legs, Huntzberger?”

“Pretty sure Rory has something she wants to say to us,” said Logan, flipping off the TV without so much as glancing at it again. “Am I right?” he asked their room-mate, who shifted awkwardly in place under the gaze of the two of them.

“You’re right,” she said, nodding her head.

She looked so unsure of herself as she contemplated sitting or standing, and if she was going to sit, which location to choose. The choice was made for her when Jess came over and dropped down onto the couch next to Logan. That left Rory with the chair and she settled into it, hands in her lap, fingers lacing and unlacing over and over. She said nothing and the guys shared a look.

“Uh, Ace?” Logan prompted her. “Should we be worried?”

“You’re not moving out, are you?” asked Jess, trying not to make his sigh of relief too obvious when Rory shook her head ‘no’. “Okay, so ..?”

“I called my mom. We were talking about Thanksgiving,” she explained, not looking at either of the guys. “Things are a little different these days. We used to have this tradition of hitting my best friend Lane’s house, and then my mom’s best friend Sookie’s, plus the diner to see Luke, and then we’d add my grandparents to the rotation sometimes.”

“Sounds like a lot of food,” said Logan thoughtfully, smiling as he added, “but we all know how well you eat so I guess it worked for you.”

“It did.” Rory smiled too. “It was always fun. Like I said, things are a little different now, it’s more of one big celebration, everybody all together. We did it at my mom’s inn one year and then at the diner the next year. Anyway, it’s such a big event with so many people, it’s not as if two more would really make a difference, so I was wondering... well, we were wondering, because my mom agreed and it’s really her invitation as much as mine, but she’s not here and I know you better than she does so... Well, would you guys like to come spend Thanksgiving with us in Stars Hollow?”

There was a very long pause after the ramble to end all rambles. Jess and Logan were used to the way Rory talked by now, the speed and sheer volume of words that could come out of her in a short period was kind of astounding, but they were smart guys and they managed to keep up pretty well, especially after a couple of months of practice. The problem was not understanding the question so much as knowing how to answer. Logan looked at Jess and Jess stared back at Logan. It wasn’t as if they needed each other’s permission to agree to going or to decline the offer, and yet, they seemed to be waiting for each other to speak first.

“It’s okay, if you don’t want to,” said Rory, getting nervous about her suggestion when no reply came for so long. “It’s no big deal, really. I just thought maybe you’d want to come, but if you don’t-”

“Hey, nobody said no yet,” Logan pointed out. “I know we didn’t say yes either, but Rory... Are you sure about this? I mean, you really want us two reprobates crashing your family occasion? Isn’t that mixing worlds together or something?”

Rory coloured as she realised why he was asking such a question. She once told him that she objected to his sleeping with Marnie because it had brought her work and her home life crashing together in an unpleasant way. It had been a half-truth, since even Rory knew that wasn’t her only problem with the Logan/Marnie night of passion, but now really wasn’t the time to get into that.

“You’re my friends,” she said, looking more at Jess than Logan right now because it was just that little bit easier. “All my other friends will be at Thanksgiving in Stars Hollow, my family too. Shouldn’t good friends share what they have with each other, especially if the other people don’t have any of their own?”

If Jess were less of a man, he had a feeling his eyes would be welling up by now. Rory Gilmore could not be any sweeter. It was just one more thing to love about the woman that was already more to him than she should be after only two months of sharing an apartment. A few days apart over Thanksgiving would probably do more good than putting himself in her company in such an intense way as going with her to her hometown for the occasion, and yet...

“So, I guess we’re headed to Connecticut for Thanksgiving. Better change my shifts for this weekend,” he considered with a smile.

“You’re coming with?” Rory checked, grinning already at that news.

“Why not?” Jess shrugged.

“Could be fun,” Logan considered. “Head back to the state I called home for a while, see how the hay-riding, town-meeting, gentlefolk of Stars Hollow live.”

Rory smiled widely at the two of them, no longer nervous, just ecstatically happy knowing she was going to give her newest friends the best Thanksgiving of their lives.

“I promise,” she swore to them, “you will not be disappointed!”


	16. Chapter 16

“This place makes me nervous,” Rory declared as she attempted to navigate Grand Central Station.

She had never been there before and was only glad not to be alone now. She stuck close to Jess and Logan, who didn't seem the least bit phased by the rush of people and commotion all around. She supposed they were well used to this kind of thing, especially Jess who was born and raised in the city.

“We promise not to lose you down a rabbit hole, Ace,” said Logan, reaching for her hand. “Here, if you’re afraid of getting lost, keep a tight hold, okay?”

“Okay,” she agreed, nodding her head but still looking pale.

A pace in front of them, Jess tried to ignore the fact that his room-mates were being so friendly and even holding hands. It would be pathetic to be jealous of such a moment when all Logan was really trying to do was prevent their mutual friend having a panic attack or similar. His good sense did not over-ride the green-eyed monster that growled inside him, but he did his best to ignore it.

“This way,” he said, gesturing for Rory and Logan to follow, squeezing through a crowd of people headed in the other direction.

They finally made it to the right platform, and just in time too as their train pulled in. Jess hopped on and Rory and Logan followed, her hand still grasped tight in his, at least until they found seats. There weren’t that many to be had. The Thanksgiving rush was in full flow, all kinds of people wanting to make their escape to home, family and friends, just outside of the city somewhere. There were three seats towards the end of the compartment, two together and one on the other side of the aisle next to a woman who was deeply engrossed in a book.

“Right here,” said Logan, moving into the pair of seats and dragging Rory with him.

Jess sighed and dropped down into the other seat beside the woman. She glanced up from her book and smiled at him a second before going back to reading. He looked over at his room-mates, glad to see they at least had their hands to themselves by now. Logan was grinning a little too much as he mouthed words across the aisle;

‘She reads. She’s your type.’

Jess rolled his eyes, made sure Rory wasn’t paying attention and gave Logan the finger for good measure. The woman beside him saw nothing, as far as he could tell, deep into her slushy romance novel that you couldn’t pay Jess to read. Settling back in the seat, he pulled his earbuds from his pocket and shoved them in his ears, cranking up the volume until he knew nothing but the music.

Rory had been looking out of the window to start off with, then she turned to talk to Jess and realised he was oblivious to the world. It was a shame not to get to talk to him at all. She had hoped to tell both him and Logan more about Stars Hollow, about the places she wanted to show them and the people she wanted them to meet. She supposed it was just as easy to do that when they got there.

“So, you excited to see your folks?” asked Logan.

“Oh yeah.” Rory nodded, grinning wide. “Like I told you, me and mom are very close, best friends as much as anything, and then there’s Luke. He and mom are engaged so he will officially be my step-father some day, but he's always been the father figure type. You’ll get to meet Lane, she was best friend growing up, and her husband Zach, and their boys. Then there’s Sookie - she’s my mom’s best friend who owns the inn with her - her husband, Jackson, he’s in produce, then their three kids...”

Logan tried to keep up as Rory talked a mile a minute about all the townsfolk of the place she called home. There were a lot of them, and the journey passed all the more quickly for her talking animatedly about each person and place that she loved and wanted to share. From Luke’s to the book store, via Al’s Pancake World and Gypsy’s garage. By the time the train neared Hartford station, Logan wasn’t sure he needed to disembark.

“Ace, I feel like I’ve already had the grand tour without ever setting foot in Stars Hollow,” he told her.

“I didn’t bore you to death, did I?” she checked, blushing a pretty pink.

“Of course not,” he promised her. “It’s cool that you can get so excited about your hometown. Me, I never really had a place like that, somewhere you just ache to go back to. Jess is NYC born and raised so its always been his place, but even he can’t get as animated about the city as you can about your town.”

“It’s a little different,” said Jess, though his eyes were still closed as they had been for the past three hours or more. “I can’t know every person or place somewhere as big as New York,” he explained, pulling the buds from his ears. “Stars Hollow is more the kind of place where everybody knows everybody, and they’ll all come running if you need help raising your barn.”

The smile on Rory’s face faded a little at the acid in his tone when he said that. Jess wasn’t usually mean, or quite so anti-social as he had been on this train ride. She couldn’t imagine he was so put out about being sat across the aisle from the two of them. He didn’t seem the type to be so petty, at least not usually.

“I didn’t think you could hear us,” she said, gesturing to her own ears but clearly meaning that she had assumed Jess had loud music playing this whole time.

“Battery died an hour ago,” he said, shrugging.

The train pulled into the stop and Jess got up to retrieve the bags. Rory got up too, with Logan right behind her as they all made for the doors. In the bustle of people, Logan ended up getting off first and Jess grabbed Rory’s arm as they stepped off onto the platform together.

“I’m sorry,” he apologised.

“For what?” she asked, pulling her arm away. 

“I wasn’t trying to diss your town or whatever. I appreciate the invitation,” he assured her.

Rory nodded her understanding and smiled. She really didn’t want to have a problem with Jess, especially not now. She had so been looking forward to this trip, maybe even more so since she invited the guys to come along.

The three of them headed out of the train station to wait for the bus and then they were on their way directly to Stars Hollow. There were three seats together this time, and Jess stopped by them, gesturing for Rory to go first.

“I’m guessing you want the window?”

It was beyond dark outside, but he figured when they got where they were headed there would be lights on, and Rory would want to see her mom or at the very least the town as soon as possible.

“Oh, if you don’t mind.”

“Wouldn’t’ve offered if I did,” he pointed out, letting her slide by.

Jess sat by Rory, and Logan got the aisle. He didn’t seem all that bothered when he spotted a redhead with a pretty smile across the way. His room-mates shared a look and both rolled their eyes.

“So, we know we’ve hit your town when we see pumpkins and shiny happy people right?” said Jess, his smile proving he meant no harm in the way he phrased it.

“That’d be Stars Hollow,” Rory agreed. “It’s probably not going to be your kind of place, now that I think about it. Very different from New York.”

“Hey, they raised you there, can’t be all bad.”

Rory looked at Jess very suddenly when he said that. Her eyes had been on the window but those words really got her attention. She wasn’t sure if he meant to be so complimentary or just generally friendly. Logan was very much for getting in a compliment wherever he could, that was just the way he was with women. Jess was different. He was nice enough, but somehow Rory took his kind words more seriously, like they meant more. 

“It’s strange actually,” she said, going for a subject change because somehow it felt safer. “In the time I’ve been living with you guys in New York, there are so many times when I’ve felt lonely, even though there are so many people in the city. In Stars Hollow, which is a fraction of the size, there were times when even I felt smothered by the attention.”

“And I’m guessing there’s really no escape in a place like that.”

“There is, if you know where to look,” said Rory thoughtfully. “There’s a spot down at the lake. I liked to go sit on the bridge there sometimes, when it wasn’t getting its regularly needed repairs, of course,” she explained. “Just sitting there by myself, watching the light on the water or getting lost in a book for a while... It’s hard to explain, but I kind of felt like I was free from the town, but safe because I was in it. Does that make sense?”

“Yeah.” Jess nodded, staring almost too intently at her when she glanced his way. “Yeah, it does.”

“Hey, Jess?” said Logan then, shattering whatever kind of moment might have been occurring when he stuck his elbow in his buddy’s ribs. “You got a pen?”

Jess looked from Logan to the red-head across the aisle and back, rolling his eyes as he searched his pockets in the confines on the middle seat.

“Here,” said Rory, reaching across him to hand Logan a pen.

He thanked her and went back to his new friend, as Rory and Jess shared a smile. They both looked to the window then, even though it was hard to see anything in the dark. Somehow it was easier than looking at each other, easier to maintain an oddly companionable silence. A few more minutes and they would be in Stars Hollow, and Rory honestly couldn’t wait.

* * *

“I’m almost done here, so I’ll head straight home after and see you and Rory there,” said Luke into the phone at the diner.

It was late and he had locked up as quickly as possible, ready to welcome Rory home for Thanksgiving. For once he was keeping the diner closed at least for the one day of the holiday so he could spend a family occasion for a change.

“They should be here any minute,” said Lorelai, the bouncing she was probably doing evident from her voice alone. “Luke, my baby girl will be home for the holidays any minute!”

“With her new room-mates,” he added sharply. “As much as I’m looking forward to seeing Rory, I’ll be glad to meet those two tomorrow, look them in the eye.”

“Y’know you’re never sexier than when you’re caring deeply for my daughter’s welfare?” said Lorelai in such a way that Luke practically blushed even though he was alone.

“I worry. I can’t help it.”

“Honestly, Luke, I promise you, they’re nice guys,” his fiancée swore to him, and not for the first time. “Also, wouldn’t kill you to learn their names before you do your fatherly glaring thing.”

“The ex-rich playboy is Huntzberger, right?”

“First name Logan,” Lorelai confirmed. “The writer is Jess... something. I forget his last name, but it’s Jess anyway,” she explained, before practically squealing in his ear. “I gotta go, babe. They’re here! See you later!”

Luke heard her hang up the phone and then did the same, a frown forming on his face. Jess wasn’t exactly a common name, but Luke had heard it before. He had a nephew named Jess, though he hadn’t seen the kid since he was just that, a kid. The chances of that Jess and this one being one and the same were slim, Luke knew. He shook his head and got back to cleaning up.

* * *

“Wow. This place is right out of a brochure,” said Logan as the three of them walked up around the main building of the inn.

“Not a word you hear much anymore, but I wanna say quaint,” said Jess thoughtfully.

“Quaint is okay,” Rory assured him. “Mom prefers beautiful, stunning, incredible. Anything a woman would want to hear about her own looks, apply to the Dragonfly for extra bonus points with Lorelai Gilmore.”

“Duly noted.” Jess smirked.

The second they set foot on the driveway, Rory’s mom came running towards them. They had half expected her to be at the bus stop waiting on them, but apparently she wasn’t quite as desperate as that to see her daughter. Logan and Jess reconsidered that thought when the two women suddenly launched themselves into each other’s arms and hugged like their lives depended on it.

“Hey! There’s my baby girl! Sweetie, Mommy missed you so much!”

“Missed you too!” said Rory happily, finally pulling away. “Mom, you remember Jess and Logan,” she reintroduced them.

“Of course. Hey, guys,” she greeted them with the widest grin. “Welcome to Stars Hollow, and more specifically, to the Dragonfly Inn,” she said with a flourish.

“Pretty amazing place you have here,” said Logan. “Incredible.”

“It’s beautiful,” Jess agreed. “Stunning, actually.”

Lorelai leaned in closer to Rory and spoke out the side of her mouth, though still quite clearly loud enough for the guys to hear. “You prep them on what words to say?”

“Maybe.”

“They learn fast,” she said with a smile. “Now, come on in, see the inside,” she told the guys, clapping her hands. “We got your room all ready. I’m sorry but we’re kinda booked up so I had to put you in a twin. I figure you have no problem bunking in together, right?”

Jess and Logan were ushered inside, meeting Michel who ran the reception desk, and Sookie who co-owned the inn and created all the delicious food. Late as it was, it took no effort to convince the friendly folks to let them go straight to their room and crash once they had eaten the food Sookie had prepared.

The moment they hit the room, Logan dropped his bag and threw himself down on the bed.

“This place is great,” he declared, putting his arms behind his head and kicking off his shoes. “I half expected it to be covered in cat motifs or drowning in flowers. It’s actually pretty classy.”

“The guy on the desk is an ass,” said Jess, dumping his bag on his bed and digging into it.

“Not gonna argue with that,” Logan agreed. “Lorelai’s great though, a lot like Rory.”

“She’s cool.” Jess nodded, retrieving his wash bag and shoving clothes into the nearest drawer. “The chef is a little intense, but friendly.”

“Hey, she said she can cook me anything I want this whole weekend, that makes her my favourite person.”

Jess smirked at Logan. “Back to having a personal chef and somebody to make your bed for you. You’re in Heaven.”

“Almost,” his friend agreed, grinning. “I think I’m gonna like Thanksgiving in Stars Hollow.”

Heading for the bathroom, Jess didn’t feel the need to give a particularly verbal answer. Being here for the holiday wouldn’t suck, he was sure, but already it was all feeling just a little intense. They had entered into Rory’s world, a place where they would be surrounded by her and everything she knew and loved for four whole days, without an escape. Jess stared into the bathroom mirror and sighed.

“This might be one of the dumbest decisions you ever made,” he told his reflection, but it was too late now.


	17. Chapter 17

The grand tour of Stars Hollow started early. Jess and Logan were up and at ‘em, simply because it was their usual habit for work. Rory was like an over-excited child when it came to showing the guys her town, and they really did feel like they had seen everything by the time they headed on to the house Rory and Lorelai affectionately referred to as the Crap Shack.

“Of course, most of the people aren’t around this early, especially on a holiday,” Rory explained as they left the town proper and headed for the house. “You’ll meet them later. Luke, owner of Luke’s diner - the greatest food in town - you get to meet when we get home. He’s the one cooking dinner for today.”

“I kind of expected it to be your chef friend Sookie,” said Logan as they walked along together, all bundled up against the cold of Connecticut’s fall weather.

“Oh, she did it last year, this year it’s Luke’s turn. We figured out that if we pushed all the living room furniture to the edges of the room, we can form a big table with lots of little ones... It’s kind of a logistical nightmare, but yeah, dinner is at the Crap Shack this year,” she explained with a smile.

“I’m sure it’ll be great,” said Jess, unable to keep from grinning himself - her enthusiasm for the holiday was just infectious.

As they reached the house, Rory ran up the porch steps ahead of her friends and opened the door. Lorelai came out of the kitchen to meet them, and then she called for Luke to come meet the guys.

“Hey there; Logan Huntzberger,” he introduced himself, holding out a hand to Luke who shook it.

“Good to meet you,” he said, meeting his eyes with his best fatherly glare that neither Lorelai or Rory could fail to notice.

“Jess Mariano,” said Rory’s second room-mate, offering a hand the same as Logan had, but Luke didn’t take it.

“You’re kidding me?” he said, wide eyed and apparently amazed.

Jess looked confused and he wasn’t alone. Rory and Logan looked at each other, wondering what was happening as Lorelai turned to her fiancé.

“Babe?” she checked, shaking his shoulder some to snap him out of whatever daze he seem to have become trapped in.

“I can’t believe this,” he said suddenly, glancing at Rory. “You’ve been living with Jess Mariano?”

It took Jess a minute to realise why this guy looked familiar. The family resemblance, the name, it all suddenly hit him upside the head and he blinked hard.

“You’re Luke. Luke Danes? Liz’s brother?” he checked he had it right, though he was almost certain before the question ever left his lips.

Luke nodded dumbly as the others stared, not ready for what happened next. Jess just turned on his heel and left, striding out of the front door and letting it swing wildly in his wake.

“Jess?” Rory called after him, turning back to her mom in a second, even as Luke went back into the kitchen. “I don’t understand. What just happened?”

“Wish I could say, hon,” Lorelai said quickly, running after her fiancé. “Luke?”

She found him leaning on the counter top, looking visibly shaken. “That was Jess, my sister’s kid.”

“Your... He’s your nephew?” asked Rory having hurried in on her mom’s heels.

Logan headed the other way, right out the front door to chase down his friend.

“Hey, Jess!” he called down the driveway.

“Leave me alone, Huntzberger!” came the angry response.

Logan knew it was no good to follow Jess when he was in such a mood. Best case scenario would probably end up with pain of one kind or other. Shaking his head, Logan ran a hand over his face and sighed.

“Like Thanksgiving with my family,” he muttered, turning to go back into the house and finding Rory there in the doorway. “He doesn’t even know where he’s going,” he said, trudging back inside.

“He’ll be fine, trust me,” Lorelai assured him, patting him on the shoulder. “You just had the tour, right? Besides, in the Hollow, you make three lefts, you end up back where you started,” she said with a forced smile.

This situation had just gotten beyond awkward, and nobody really knew what to say or do for best. Everyone present was well aware of the family issues Jess had. He and Liz loved each other, in a your-my-mother/son-so-I-have-to kind of a way, but they hadn’t talked in years. Certainly neither Jess nor Luke had any clue what they were walking into today, not until it was too late.

“This is maybe the weirdest coincidence ever,” said Rory, shaking her head.

“You got that right, kid,” her mother agreed as Luke came wandering out from the kitchen, looking as if he wasn’t even sure where he was anymore.

“When you said his name was Jess, I thought about it, but I just thought... like Rory said, it’d be the weirdest coincidence,” he explained. “I just figured it was one of those things. I haven’t seen him since he was maybe ten,” he admitted, shaking his head as Lorelai led him back to the kitchen and sat him down at the table. “Geez, I went so many years without seeing Liz and... This is insane!”

“I probably should’ve gone after him,” Logan sighed, going with Rory into the living room and dropping down into the couch with her beside him. “Not that I'd know what to say. Jess is really touchy about his family.”

“I know he doesn’t get on so great with his mom,” she agreed. “Has he seen her at all since he left home?”

“A couple of times.” Logan nodded. “It never ends well from what he says, and you know Jess, he doesn’t always say much when it matters.”

“Sounds as if he hasn’t seen Luke since he was a kid,” said Rory sadly. “Poor Jess. What about his father?”

“Jimmy showed up a couple of years ago,” Logan explained in a low voice, mindful of what was and was not to be shared with the supposed ‘Uncle’ Luke. “Jess never met him before that day. Jimmy walked out when Jess was a baby, I think? We were both drinking kind of a lot when he gave me the full story, so my memory is sketchy on the details.”

Rory really didn’t know what to do. Clearly Luke was stunned to see Jess, and vice versa. She was caught between needing to make it better for each of them if she could and not wanting Logan to be uncomfortable. Patting her room-mate on the arm a second, she got up and went through to the kitchen where Lorelai had just fixed Luke a drink.

“I’m so sorry, Luke,” said Rory from the door. “I didn’t mean to cause a problem.”

“You didn’t,” he promised her, forcing a smile. “Rory, it’s not your fault, you had no idea we were related. Honestly, I don’t hate seeing Jess, I just... It was a shock,” he admitted, taking a drink.

“For him too, I think,” Rory agreed, still feeling like she needed to be doing something to help here, just really not knowing what that something was yet.

* * *

Jess couldn’t feel his fingers or his toes anymore. He doubted a person could get frostbite on a Fall day in Connecticut, so he wasn’t worried about his body turning completely numb from the extremities inward. Sat here by himself, his third cigarette in his mouth, it seemed like a better situation than heading back to Rory’s house.

Seeing Luke, realising who he was, it was a hell of a shock. Running out probably wasn’t the smartest move, especially when he had nowhere else much to go, but it had always been Jess’ way. Bolt first, worry about the consequences after. He learnt a couple of years ago that he probably inherited that particular trait from Jimmy. Jess wasn’t sure if that made him feel better or worse. Taking another drag on his cigarette, Jess blew out smoke and watched it fade out over the water of the lake. He never even heard the footsteps of someone approaching, and the first he knew of Rory’s presence was when she sat down next to him and sighed.

“You moved into my quiet thinking place,” she said, legs dangling over the bridge so close to his that their shoes almost knocked together.

“Sorry,” he muttered, not even glancing her way.

“I wasn’t looking for an apology,” Rory promised. “You’re welcome to be here.”

Silence reigned a few moments, before she tried again to start a conversation.

“So, big shock, huh?”

“Big shock,” he echoed, taking one last drag from his cigarette before throwing the stub into the water with the others. “I don’t really do the family thing,” he said, rubbing his cold hands on his jeans.

“I know.” Rory nodded. “When was the last time you saw Luke?”

“When I was ten, maybe? I don’t know,” Jess admitted, eyes still on the view and never on her. “He came to bail Liz out a few times when I was a kid, and then one day, he just stopped coming around. Liz was actually talking about shipping me off to good old Uncle Luke, not long before I went out on my own,” he recalled with a sad smile. “She never mentioned the name of the place. That might’ve been a clue.”

“Yeah,” agreed Rory, not really sure what else to say.

As Logan had said, Jess wasn’t big on talking about his family or his feelings. It made it near impossible to know what to say to make this situation better, though she was desperate to try. Sitting out here freezing to death wasn’t getting them anywhere, but leaving him alone just wasn’t an option, Rory knew.

Jess sighed loudly in the cold silence, hands running over his face and back through his hair. “I was not ready for this,” he admitted.

Anybody else, and Rory probably would have expected tears, but this was Jess and somehow crying didn’t seem likely. He looked upset though, shocked and overwhelmed. Instinct put her hand on his shoulder and that finally got his attention apparently.

“It’s okay,” she told him kindly. “For what it’s worth, Luke is a really great guy. If you wanted to get to know him...” she ventured.

Jess shook his head. “I don’t know.”

He looked so much like a lost little boy, Rory wondered if that was just how he was feeling, if maybe seeing a man that had probably saved his mom and him so many times when he was a kid made him feel like one again. Moving closer, she put her arm around his back and hugged him.

“I’m sorry,” she said, unsure which part exactly she was apologising for.

Jess shook his head, but made no objection to her trying to comfort him. “What do you have to be sorry for?” he asked her, turning his head and finding she really was incredibly close now. “I’m sorry for making such a scene back there. I just... I couldn’t deal. Me and Liz, it’s not a pretty history. Luke is Liz’s sister, and part of a past I try to forget.”

“I understand,” she told him, “but it’ll be okay. I promise, we’ll make it be okay.”

It was impossible not to be comforted and reassured by her words. She meant every one. She was going to make it be okay somehow, and Jess was so hypnotised by her kind blue eyes, her soft voice, her arm around his back.

“You’re one in a million, Rory Gilmore,” he told her, his hand briefly at her cheek. “Anyone ever tell you that?”

She didn’t seem to know how to react to that. The truth was that Rory was a little overwhelmed by this whole situation, and ever more so by the way Jess was looking at her right now. He was lost and confused, she only wanted to make it better. Leaning in closer, her lips met his own in a sweet kiss that she initiated and he easily fell into.

A few seconds later, her brain caught up to what she was doing and Rory pulled back.

“Um. I didn’t... I... I wasn’t trying to...” she rambled a bit, scrabbling to get away, to find her feet and make an escape.

Jess got up fast too, worried she would run after what just happened. He really didn't want that.

“Rory...”

“I was trying to be nice is all,” she said, waving her arms in crazy windmill movements, “I just thought... and then... I’m such an idiot!”

“It’s fine, I get it,” said Jess, reaching for her arm to steady her, worried now she might throw herself into the water with her rash movements.

Rory stared down at his hand grasping her sleeve and forced a breath of frigid air through her lungs. She really was an idiot. Kissing Jess was maybe the dumbest thing she could have done, and yet it felt like the most natural thing in the world when it happened. She looked up to meet his eyes then, his dark soulful eyes that she could so easily have drowned in a few moments before. This was not good.

“Um, we should really get back,” she said, pulling her arm from his grasp. “Logan and my mom and Luke, they’ll be worried, about the both of us. Plus every one else is going to arrive for dinner soon.”

“Then let’s go,” Jess agreed, nodding his head.

Rory turned to walk off the bridge and he followed one pace behind. Jess seriously wasn’t sure what just happened here or what it could mean, but right now one problem at a time seemed to be the way forward. First he would figure out things between him and Luke, and try to get through Thanksgiving dinner without any issues. What could potentially be between him and Rory would have to wait until later.


	18. Chapter 18

Jess had assumed that Thanksgiving in Stars Hollow would be rough. He knew putting himself in a position where he was surrounded by all things Rory was asking for trouble. He wanted to be close to her, and he couldn’t be, she didn’t want that. He had to learn to live at arm’s length and that was that, but that was just the beginning of what he had to deal with this weekend.

Meeting Luke and discovering he was his uncle, that had been a real curveball. Jess wasn’t sure how to handle that. Still, it was a simpler situation than him and Rory. That kiss she laid on him at the bridge had kind of blown his mind, and then to have her back-pedal and say it was all a mistake, it stung a lot. It was easier to concentrate on the Luke situation, that he figured he could find a way to deal with, more or less anyway.

Thanksgiving dinner had passed without a mention of the familial connection that had only just now been discovered. There were other people there and neither Jess nor Luke wanted them all knowing their business. Rory introduced her room-mates to Lane and Zach, Sookie and Jackson, and all the kids that came with those two couples. Logan was polite and charming throughout, trying to make up for the fact Jess was moody and silent for the most part. His friend was at least grateful for the effort made to keep him out of conversation and give him a chance to regroup.

When the party broke up late in the evening, leaving just the five that had been at the house that morning, Lorelai made a big deal of taking Rory to the kitchen to do the dishes. Jess got the distinct impression they would never usually make such an offer, and he knew damn well Logan wasn’t the type to pitch in with that kind of task. They were all trying to get out of the way to let Luke and Jess talk, to say whatever they needed to.

“Well, this isn’t awkward,” said Jess, sitting on the edge of the couch with his elbows rested on his knees.

“They mean well, I guess,” said Luke, picking his beer up off the table and taking a long drink. “Listen, Jess, I don’t... I guess the first thing I should say is that... well, I’m sorry.”

“For what?” asked his nephew, frowning some. “For being in Rory’s life?”

“No, of course not.” Luke shook his head. “I meant for... for not being around when you probably needed somebody. Y’know I spent years - more than I can count actually - trying to keep Liz out of trouble. “

“That’s a full time job.” Jess rolled his eyes. “I speak from experience.”

Luke winced at that revelation. He knew how hard it was on him seeing Liz all but destroy herself with drink, drugs, and unsuitable men. What it must have done to a kid, he couldn’t imagine. So many times Luke had tried to help, but after a while, it became clear that Liz didn’t want what she saw as interference. Luke had backed off, thinking maybe that was the better option for everyone. He had to have been wrong if the look on Jess’ face was anything to go by.

“I am so sorry, Jess,” he said again, but his nephew shook his head.

“Seriously, you can stop apologising now,” he told him definitely. “You didn’t make Lizzie a basket-case, she did that to herself. At least, I assume she was okay before the booze and the dope. She seemed like she could’ve been different sometimes, when she cared enough to be sober,” he said with a sigh. “I don’t know, Luke, it was a long time ago. You can beat yourself up for abandoning Liz, I could do the same, but what’s the point?”

“You didn’t abandon her, Jess.”

“Sure I did,” he admitted easily, shrugging his shoulders and taking a drink of his beer. “Truth is, I picked up where you left off. Mothers are supposed to take care of their kids, but I was the one raising her most of the time, getting her out of trouble, finding money to pay our way, trying to stop the next guy from robbing us blind or...” he trailed off, shaking his head, preferring not to recall it all.

“That must’ve been awful for you.”

“I survived. Probably made me stronger in the long run,” he considered. “It is what it is, man. When I got to seventeen, I was flunking out of school from never being there, and still Liz couldn’t clean up her act. Enough was enough, so I walked.”

“And you never looked back,” Luke guessed.

“Exactly.” Jess agreed, saluting those words with the bottle in his hand. “I don’t regret that, and neither should you. Some people can’t be saved, Luke, no matter how hard you try.”

That was hard for a son to say, Luke guessed, and equally as tough for a brother to hear. Maybe Liz really was a lost cause. It seemed neither of them had heard from her in a whole lot of years, and perhaps nobody but Liz herself could be blamed for that.

“Well, I’m still sorry,” he said eventually. “If not for abandoning Liz then for not being there for you. Might’ve made things a little easier. If I’d tried harder, if I’d brought you back to Stars Hollow with me, maybe...”

“And if its and buts were candy and nuts we’d all have a Merry Christmas,” said Jess, smirking around another sip of beer. “Don’t beat yourself up, Luke. You did what you could, and then you got out. It’s what I did too. There’s a reason I don’t talk about the past much. Same reason I left pretty fast when I realised a piece of that past was standing in Rory’s living room,” he admitted, rolling his eyes at his own dumb behaviour. “I’m sorry about that, by the way.”

“It’s fine,” said Luke, waving away any concerns on that front. “Shock does strange things to people.”

Jess nodded, and they both drank. Neither of them knew what else to do or to say for that matter. This was a very weird situation, but at least they were getting along. He had nothing to reproach Luke for, not really. Maybe he could’ve tried harder, but Jess doubted he would have wanted any sort of assistance he was offered back then. Probably best that things played out like they did in the long run.

Down the hall in the kitchen, Logan quickly realised that he was the only one who meant it when he offered to help clean up from the Thanksgiving meal. Not that doing dishes and taking out garbage were his favourite hobbies, but he recognised the need for Luke and Jess to talk, so he followed the girls lead and left the room. Within seconds of them getting into the kitchen, Rory and Lorelai had turned on the water, clattered some plates around, and then gone back to the doorway to eavesdrop on whatever was being said in the living room. All Logan could hear was their whispered colour commentary, and though he was concerned for Jess in all this, it was impossible not to be amused by the Gilmore girls conversation.

“How long do you think it is since they’ve seen each other?”

“Luke said Jess was nine, maybe ten.”

“Wow, that’s a long time.”

“Does he talk about his mom at all?”

“Never, but if your mom was a whack job, would you?”

“Well, actually...”

“Mom!”

Logan tried not to laugh as he focused on cleaning dish after dish, glass after glass, stacking them neatly on the drainer.

“Jess flunked out of school?”

“You already knew that!”

“How?”

“Because he told you the first day you guys met?”

“Oh, right!”

Turning around to lean on the counter, Logan dried his hands off on a towel and waited for the show to be over. Apparently, that wasn’t yet.

“Hey, Huntzberger,” said Lorelai, looking back at him. “You finished high school, right?”

“I graduated,” he told her, nodding his head. “Just don’t ask me about college.”

“You’re one up on me, kid,” Lorelai shrugged and went back to listening in.

“I think they’re done talking,” said Rory then, poking her mother in the ribs. “What do we do?”

“I don’t know. Why are you asking me?”

“Ladies,” said Logan, tossing the dishtowel on the table and moving forward a few steps. “Allow me,” he suggested, strolling on into the living room. “Hey, I was thinking of heading back to the inn, gotta get that beauty sleep. You coming, Jess?”

“Er, yeah. I’m beat,” he agreed, finishing off his beer and placing the bottle on the table.

When he got up, so did Luke, the pair of them shifting awkwardly in place by the time Rory an Lorelai joined the scene.

“You headed out already?” asked Lorelai.

“It’s getting late,” said Logan, tossing Jess’ jacket into his hands. “We don’t wanna outstay our welcome. Besides, those comfortable beds at your beautiful inn are calling us home.”

“Oh, he’s a charmer,” Lorelai told Rory.

“He is that,” she agreed, blushing when Logan gave her a significant look.

Luke saw the guys to the door, shaking hands with each of them, and looking ever more awkwardly at Jess.

“We’ll see you tomorrow, I guess,” said his nephew, with a half a smile.

“Sounds good.” Luke nodded.

Rory felt a sigh of relief escape her as the exchange ended and the guys were finally gone. She really had this awful feeling that things would turn nasty between Jess and Luke somehow. Also, she had this fear of Jess bringing up what happened on the bridge, either to her or worse in front of everybody. She really couldn’t handle that right now.

“So, that was quite the eventful event,” said Lorelai, hugging Rory around the shoulders. “You sure brought the entertainment, sweets.”

“That was not my intention,” her daughter confirmed. “Um, I’m gonna get to bed. You know turkey always makes me sleepy.”

She said her goodnights and headed for her room, deliberately leaving her mom and Luke alone. Lorelai went straight into the arms of her man and they shared a hug.

“You doin’ okay?” she checked, moving to look up at him.

“Yeah, I’m okay,” he promised, finding her a weak smile. “Jess isn't mad at me, so that’s good. Honestly, I expected him to be.”

“From what I heard, you both did your best,” she told him. “People on a path of self-destruction always leave collateral damage, Luke. Any problems Jess suffered because of Liz, that’s not your fault. Even he said so.”

“I know.” Luke nodded, and yet he still looked sad and regretful.

If it were possible, Lorelai loved him even more in this moment than ever before. He cared so much. Her Luke just wanted everybody happy, everybody taken care of. It was one of so many things to adore about him.

* * *

Jess hadn’t talked much on the way back to the inn. He took his turn in the bathroom after Logan, hardly acknowledging his room-mates presence at all. Logan wasn't sure if he was supposed to say anything or not. At home he would've left Jess to his own devices in his own room and figured things would be better by morning. Here at the inn, there was no escape from each other and not addressing the issue seemed more wrong than doing so.

“You okay, man?” he said as Jess came and got into the bed across from his own.

“Yeah, I’m okay,” he told Logan, reaching for his book from the night-stand but not opening it yet. “I think Luke expected a punch in the face or something,” he admitted with a smirk he couldn't help.

“Speaking from experience, nobody wants that.” Logan smirked right back as they glanced at each other. “I know you and family is a touchy subject, and I don’t wanna go all ‘Very Special Blossom’ on you,” he said more seriously then, “but if you need to talk about anything-”

“I got it covered,” Jess cut in, “but thanks.”

Logan nodded his understanding and was going to let it go, but there was one more thing on his mind that was just going to keep him awake if he didn’t ask the question. So far Jess was pretty calm and collected, so Logan pressed forward.

“So, something happened with you and Rory when she came looking for you before dinner,” he said, watching for some reaction that never really came. “C’mon, Jess, I’m not blind or stupid. She was stealing glances at you all day, but never directly staring, and any chance she got she was making a huge deal about talking me up. That’s not normal behaviour for our girl,” he said, shaking his head.

Jess exhaled loudly and dumped his book down in his lap.

“She kissed me,” he admitted, rubbing his forehead like he felt a headache coming on, “but it wasn’t like that, she just... She was trying to make me feel better. She apologised the next second and it was done.”

It hurt to admit it, but that was the truth. Besides, the last thing Jess needed to add to this mess was another fight with Logan. He looked over at his room-mate and saw him nod his head.

“Okay.”

“So, you’re not gonna make a thing about this?” he checked. “I mean, you wanna get into playground rules, you started this. You kissed her first.”

“Hey, man, put the bat down!” said Logan, hands raised in mock-surrender. “I said nothing. Actually, what I said was ‘okay’ which is an indication to most normal, well-adjusted people that things are cool.”

Jess sighed, realising fast that he probably just over-reacted. That wasn't new for him.

“Okay,” he said eventually.

Logan smiled, nodded once, and then turned over in his bed to go to sleep. Jess considered doing the same, though he doubted it was going to be easy to make his brain stop whirling long enough to get any rest. Picking his book up again, he decided to read a few pages and see if it helped. For maybe the first time ever, it didn’t.


	19. Chapter 19

By the time the weekend after Thanksgiving was over, Rory was exhausted. What ought to have been a relaxing time with family and friends had turned into kind of a mess of running around trying to keep everyone else happy, and even then Rory wasn’t sure she had done the best job on that score. She had to take responsibility for Logan and Jess. After all, she had brought them to her home town and pretty much promised them a good time. That was a little hard to deliver in the circumstances.

Jess and Luke being related was such a shock, and though neither one seemed unhappy at meeting each other again after so many years, it did create a level of awkward when certain topics arose in conversation. They did the 'getting to know you' thing a little bit when Rory spent some time alone with her mom just catching up. Logan had said he was fine hanging out around town, but the next day had Rory feeling bad for abandoning him and doing her best to make it up to him.

Lorelai did warn her about giving him the wrong idea, and Rory tried not to let it happen. At the same time, it wasn’t as if she was pretending to like Logan. She really did like him a lot. There were times when she wondered why she pushed him away that first time he kissed her. After all, they got along so well, he made her laugh, he was charming and handsome. His sleeping with a different woman every week didn’t thrill her, but if she thought he could change, maybe it would be worth it.

Unfortunately, every time her mind headed in that direction, it circled back around to Jess. If she was forced to choose one of her room-mates to date, she knew which one made more sense. She and Jess had more in common, and she trusted him to be more genuine with her about things, more serious, more committed. Not that she would ever ask him, or Logan, for a commitment. They couldn’t date, it would be crazy with them all living together and everything. Rory told them both she didn’t want that and she meant it. At least, when she said it, she thought she had meant it. Hadn’t she?

Kissing Jess on the bridge Thanksgiving Day probably wasn’t her smartest move, but she told him it was a mistake and he hadn’t mentioned it since. She hadn’t either, and after spending most of Sunday clamped to Logan’s side, she hoped she had sort of evened things out, that neither guy felt like he was more or less to her than the other. Somehow Rory wondered if she hadn’t just made the whole thing worse!

“It was so good to see you, babe,” said Lorelai, hugging her daughter tightly, “but now I have to say goodbye again. I hate this part!”

“It won’t be for long, Mom,” Rory promised her. “Christmas is only a month away and we’ll see each other then.”

“And in the meantime, we promise to take very good care of her,” said Logan with a smile. “Nobody messes with our Rory and gets away with it.”

“I don’t hate hearing that,” said Lorelai happily.

“And I certainly didn’t hate getting to spend a family holiday here in Stars Hollow. You’ve been the perfect hostess, Lorelai, and your inn is spectacular,” he told her, taking a hold of the hand she offered him and raising it to his lips to kiss.

“You’re more than welcome, Logan,” she assured him. “But stop that now or my boyfriend is gonna get jealous.”

“Not a chance,” said Luke, hearing the last part now he was done saying goodbye to Jess and exchanging numbers so they could keep in touch. “I am not at all worried about you running off with a guy who can’t cook.”

“Yep, you got him there,” said Jess with a smirk. “Thanks for this weekend, Lorelai.”

“You’re welcome, Jess,” she assured him. “Don’t be a stranger, okay?”

“I’ll try not to be,” he said, nodding his head.

“Well, we really have to make a move,” said Rory then, hugging Luke and then Lorelai one more time before hopping into the front of the cab.

Jess and Logan were already in the back and then they were off, headed for Hartford and then onto home.

* * *

The journey back to New York was fairly uneventful, for Rory anyway. She fell asleep on the train and woke up embarrassed because she had her head on Logan’s shoulder. He certainly didn’t seem to mind, nudging her awake just before they arrived at Grand Central and giving her a winning smile. Rory was pretty sure she hadn’t blushed so much in her life, and when he offered to hold her hand through the station like they had on the way in, she made a big deal of declining, which probably only made it worse. She opened her mouth to say maybe Jess should get to hold her hand this time to even things out, thankfully realising how stupid that sounded before the words escaped.

They made it back to the apartment without incident and Rory headed straight for her room, claiming she was tired and just wanted to get to bed. Whether the guys believed her or not she couldn’t say, but in that moment she needed to be away from them, even if only for a little bit.

It would have helped if sleep came easily, but it didn’t. Tossing and turning for the first couple of hours led to Rory giving in and deciding to read a while. The first book her hand landed on was The Subsect, which she quickly dismissed as a bad idea. The next book belonged to Jess and the third was the one he gave her for her birthday.

“Are you kidding me?” she asked the ceiling, presumably aiming her comments at God or Fate or whoever caused such apparent coincidences. “One more,” she decided then, reaching out her hand to the nearest shelf.

The fourth book took a tumble to the floor and disappeared under the edge of the bed, leading to Rory hopping out for a second to retrieve it. Out from under the bed came not just the book, but a sheaf of papers that she quickly recognised. They were pro-con lists, one each containing her considerations regarding dating Logan and Jess and a third when she wondered if it might be best for her to move out of the apartment. It had been more than three weeks ago when she made these lists, but as she looked over the data, she couldn’t say there was much to be altered on them. Grabbing a pen and hopping back into bed, she reviewed them anyway, crossing off a couple of things that no longer seemed important, scribbling in a few more facts. By the end, her eyes were wide as saucers at the results that were now even clearer than before.

“No, no, no,” she muttered, shoving all the papers back under her bed with defiance. “It doesn’t matter,” she said quietly to herself, turning out the lamp and burrowing down under her covers.

Rory was determined to go to sleep and even more determined to not deal with whatever feelings Jess or Logan might have had for her in the past. It was all over now anyway, they had decided nobody was going to date anybody and Rory was not going to move out, so the results visible on her pro-con lists were completely null and void.

If only it were that simple!

* * *

Monday morning allowed Rory to escape to work, thankfully without running into either of her room-mates on the way. She got to her desk and started to deal with emails and post-its galore. There was plenty to do, more than ever since a lot of people, including herself, had taken a long weekend. By the time her lunch break rolled around, Rory was more than ready for food and a generous amount of coffee. In her haste to get to the break room, she almost ran straight into someone coming the other way.

“Oh, I’m sorry, I... Marnie,” she reacted with surprise at seeing her, though Rory couldn’t have explained why if she was asked.

Marnie still worked at the paper, she saw her all the time, though they hadn’t talked much since the day Rory caught her so-called friend stumbling out of Logan’s bedroom that one morning. Things had just felt awkward and strange ever since. Rory couldn’t seem to get past it and she honestly wasn’t sure why that was.

“Hello, Gilmore.” Marnie smiled. “Have a good Thanksgiving with the folks, did you?”

“I did, thanks.” Rory nodded. “You?”

“’S not really the same for us Brits. Besides, all of what you’d call my close family is back in the mother country, so I just stayed in the city, did my own thing.”

Rory nodded some more, unsure what to say. It was a shame that they couldn’t get along anymore. She wanted to. Marnie was a little outrageous but she kind of liked her anyway. She was like British Madeline and Louise in a lot of ways, but then she slept with Logan and everything just felt different.

“Look, Rory, I’m sorry if I upset you with the whole Huntzberger situation,” said Marnie suddenly, pushing her hair back out of her face. “It was just one of those things, y’know? Right place, right time, or wrong place, wrong time, I don’t know. I wasn’t trying to... to hurt you or get at you. You were so adamant you didn’t like him that way-”

“I was. I am,” Rory insisted. “I have no claim over Logan Huntzberger. He chooses who he sleeps with and he chose you. I shouldn’t have over-reacted the way I did.”

“I still shouldn’t have done it,” Marnie insisted. “What’s that one the lads have about 'bros before hoes'?. We must have an equivalent, surely?”

“I think it’s sisters before misters.”

“Right, much classier. Anyway, I am sorry.”

“It’s fine, really. Let’s just forget it.”

Rory couldn’t talk about this anymore. It seemed so pointless and petty. She needed friends where she worked and Marnie had been good in that capacity before. Plus the two of them being so awkward around each other was making Philip’s life miserable and they both knew it. Maybe it was time to just bury the hatchet, and preferably not in each other’s backs!

“Um, you wanna come sit with me, have some lunch?” Rory offered.

“Yeah, that’d be nice” Marnie agreed. “And we’ll talk about everything other than men.”

Rory laughed. “Sounds like a plan.”

* * *

Jess sighed and put his finger down hard on the backspace key. Everything he wrote today was garbage. Absolutely every single word belonged in the trash! It was crazy, because since Rory moved in it was like his muse went into over-drive. He was writing better than he had in weeks, maybe months, fuelled by the many and various emotions she seemed to cause in him. Some days it was spending time bantering with her over books or movies that inspired him. Other times it was thinking too much about the pain that came with knowing he could be close to her but never as close as he would like to be. Since Stars Hollow, something changed. Actually, it wasn’t the trip as a whole that made things impossible, it was that moment on the bridge when she kissed him.

Those few seconds were so indelibly marked on his brain, Jess knew for certain that nothing would ever remove that memory. The feel of her so close, the warmth of her body, her lips on his. He closed his eyes now as he recalled it, in every tiny excruciating detail. It was torture, like being given a taste of the most delicious food in the world only to be told you would never be allowed to have any more. That was what living with Rory had become, a constant journey down the narrow line between pleasure and pain. Jess only wished there was something he could do about it that wouldn’t make matters worse. One thing was for sure, this situation was really screwing with his writing. He shut the lid to his laptop and pushed it further away across the desk. It just wasn’t going to happen today. Besides, he had to be at work in a half hour. At least he would be out when Rory came home. Not that avoiding her helped at all, she was constantly on his mind no matter what, and not seeing her was almost worse anyway.

Jess was halfway ready to leave for the diner when his cell buzzed on the desk. He reached for it and smiled when he saw a text had arrived from Luke.

‘Just chucking this woks. Not grate with texting,’ he read with no shortage of a smirk.

‘It works,’ he wrote back. ‘Feel free to call whenever, if that’s easier,’ he added before hitting send.

If nothing else positive came out of Thanksgiving weekend in Stars Hollow, Jess couldn’t be sorry about reconnecting with Luke. His uncle seemed like a nice guy and he wanted to keep in touch. Jess had no issue with that. Family always let him down before, but from all that Rory said, Luke wasn't the type. They could be buddies, in some small way, Jess supposed.

“Maybe he would know what to do about this situation,” Jess considered aloud, pulling his phone from his pocket again and considering a call. “Probably not,” he decided after a while, putting the cell away again and heading out to work, no further forward than before.


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter 20 

“Hey, when did Christmas suddenly arrive?” Logan looked equal parts amused and baffled when he came into the apartment and could see nothing but tinsel and fairy lights throughout the living room. “Maybe this happy Christmas elf would like to explain?” he asked Rory as she got up from under the coffee table, narrowly avoiding hitting her head as she did so.

“Hey!” she greeted him with a smile. “Is it too much?” she checked, suddenly worried that it might be. “I mean, you guys said you didn’t mind if I decorated and we always go all out at home. We can’t even fit a tree in this place, so I just got extra lights and... and I over-did it, didn’t?” she said, passing the ornament she had just retrieved back and forth in her hands nervously.

“Ace, it looks good, I promise you,” he said, his hand briefly at her elbow as he looked around the room. “Sure, it’s a lot more than we would usually have going on in here, but who doesn’t love a little Christmas cheer?”

“Probably Jess,” Rory grumbled. “Not that he’s said anything. He hasn’t even seen it yet, but I just get this feeling he might not be thrilled. He doesn’t seem to be in the best mood lately.”

“I think some of that might be the shock of finding his uncle in your hometown,” Logan considered. “Like I told you before, the whole family thing tends to mess with his head, but he’ll be fine. Besides, he’s not anti-Christmas, neither of us are likely to be attending Midnight Mass or anything, but we’re believers, in the more general sense of the word.”

Rory nodded, happy enough with that as she got back to her decorating. She turned to call to Logan again a second before he made it into his room.

“Um, could you help me out with something?”

“Sure, what’s up?” he asked, assuming it was going to be something about hanging tinsel or some other decking the halls issue.

“I got this guy in the Secret Santa at work,” she explained then. “His name is Joe and he works in the accounts department. I really don’t know him and I’m pretty useless at buying gifts for guys even when I do know them. Any ideas?”

“I guess it depends on the guy,” Logan considered rubbing his chin thoughtfully. “If you really don’t know him, probably best to stay away from alcohol since not everybody drinks, but the old standbys are usually socks or a tie - I never met a guy who couldn’t make use of those, except for the really overly festive ones. No flashing reindeer noses or jingle bells, they’ll probably just get tossed the next day.”

“Sound advice, thank you.” Rory nodded. “Speaking of gifts, do you and Jess do the whole giving thing at Christmas?”

“To each other?” said Logan, shaking his head. “Not really.”

“Oh. I mean, I was going to get you guys something, but I don’t want you to feel uncomfortable about not getting me anything, because I’m okay with that,” Rory rambled, as she so often did, but at least it hid her disappointment at not being able to buy gifts for the guys. “Maybe I should just stick to no gifts, if you guys don’t usually do gifts.”

The front door opened and slammed in Jess’ wake as he walked in then.

“Hey, man,” Logan greeted him, “we were just talking Christmas.”

Jess looked up sharply and took in the sight before him. 

“And apparently turning the living room into Santa’s house.”

“Yeah, Ace here likes to decorate,” his buddy explained. “Looks good though, right?”

“Sure, yeah,” Jess agreed, noting the look Logan was giving him, the one that said ‘please do not upset the Christmas elf right now’. “You need help with anything?” he asked Rory.

“I got it,” she told him, nodding her head. “But thanks. Um, Logan was just telling me how you guys don’t so much do gifts for each other, so... Good job he told me, so I didn’t go ahead and make a fool of myself buying stuff for you guys.”

Jess nodded his agreement and then squeezed by them both, disappearing into the bathroom before any more could be said.

“Good talk,” Rory muttered, tossing a handful of candy canes down onto the table.

Logan could see how disappointed she was to not have Jess want to be her buddy right now, but at the same time, he understood why Jess couldn’t handle that. He wanted more, and just when Rory seemed like she might feel the same, she back-tracked. It was unfair, Logan supposed, but he really was so tempted to just lock them in a bedroom together until they figured this whole thing out. So much for not saying anything, keeping the peace and balance of the apartment, it really didn’t seem to be working anymore. Something had to give.

* * *

Work had seemed long and boring in her office that bore no Christmas decorations at all yet. Rory would be glad to get back to her tinsel-covered apartment that felt more like home than ever in its current state. At the same time, she almost wished she didn’t have to be there because it was likely Jess would be around. It was awful because she loved to spend time with him before, but the mood he was in lately, it was just so painful to have him avoid her. She supposed some of it was her own fault, what with the kissing and her being the reason he had seen Luke again, but she had hoped he would be over that by now. Clearly not.

When her cell started ringing, Rory stopped on the pavement outside The Times and started rifling in her purse. Unfortunately, her cell seemed to have evaporated between her desk and here, and yet it had to be there somewhere because she could hear it ringing. Just as she laid her hand on the phone and righted her body she felt two arms creep around her, and hands landed over her eyes. Before she had a chance to react, a familiar voice spoke to her.

“How’s the best looking girl ever to come out of Connecticut?”

“Oh my God!” she gasped, grinning like an idiot as she turned into him. “Levi!”

“Hey, beautiful,” he said as she hugged and kissed him, waving his cell that was in his hand so she knew he was the one calling her too. “How’s life treating you?”

“Pretty good, especially right now!” Rory enthused. “I can’t believe you’re here! How are you here?”

“I have a meeting in Boston, thought I’d swing by the Big Apple, maybe do a little Christmas shopping and drop in on my favourite journalist.”

It was like some kind of early Christmas miracle to Rory to be seeing Levi again so soon. They had met on the Obama campaign and become firm friends, but wondered if it was really likely that they would stay in touch after. Their lives were set for different paths and their homes at such a distance, it seemed unlikely, and yet now he was here. Levi was literally one of the nicest guys Rory had ever met, and not half bad looking either. If not for the fact he had a yen to date the same kind of guys that she did, they might have made a very cute couple.

“It’s so great to see you. How long are you here?” she asked, still holding onto him.

“Sadly, not long,” he told her with a sigh. “I gotta catch a train out no later than noon tomorrow.”

“Oh, that’s not long,” said Rory sadly.

“It’s not, but I can spend as much as of it with you as you can possibly stand,” said Levi, waggling his eyebrow.

Rory cheered up in a second.

“Then let’s not waste a minute. Are you hungry?”

“You know it.”

They headed off hand-in-hand to the nearest diner that Rory knew served decent food. Actually, it was the second nearest diner. Jess worked at the closest one sometimes and she really didn’t want to risk seeing him or anyone who might tell him she was there. Right now keeping things simple seemed better, and that included keeping Levi separate to her room-mates, of course, it was impossible for Rory not to mention Jess or Logan at all when she got to catching up with Levi. After he got done explaining about his new job, telling tales about his family, and confirming his own love life was too quiet at present, Rory had to tell him all that had been going on with her, not just about her job but about her new apartment and the guys that came as part of the package deal. Before she knew it, he had all the details. Levi was just so easy to talk to, all the information came spilling out before Rory could stop it.

“So, you’re living with two gorgeous and intelligent guys who both love you?” he summarised, sipping his third coffee.

“That is not what I said.” Rory shook her head, though she knew denying that it was true would be pointless and stupid.

“It’s what you implied.” Levi smiled. “And you really don’t feel anything for either of them?”

Rory looked away.

“It’s not that simple,” she explained, hands on her coffee cup, eyes everywhere but on Levi. “They’re both great, I could love them, I do, like really good friends, but I don’t...” she trailed away.

“Rory?” Levi prompted, his hand at her chin making her look up.

He regretted it when he saw tears beginning to well in her bright blue eyes.

“I can’t lie to you, can I?” she said with a watery smile.

“It never worked before.”

“Honestly, I have feelings for them both, in a way,” she admitted, “but it’s... It’s Jess. If I have to choose between them, if I’m completely honest with myself, I really, really like Jess,” she said all in rush, the confession coming out of her and feeling like a weight lifted off her shoulders, and yet she had to add; “but nothing can happen.”

“Why not?” Levi frowned. “He likes you, you like him.”

“And Logan likes me,” she reminded him. “He’s been really kind to me, and he and Jess are like brothers. Bringing a romantic relationship into this situation would ruin everything. It’s why we agreed not to let it happen.”

“But you’re not happy like this,” said Levi, knowing that before she ever had to wipe away a stray tear.

“I think I can be. I want to be,” she said bravely. “I don’t know, Levi. All I know for sure right now is that it’s better for me to carry on being friends with these guys and just make it work, at least for now,” she said, desperately trying to get her composure back. “Please, let’s not waste any more of your visit talking about this,” she urged Levi, her hand over his on the table and squeezing. “Tell me more about you. I know you’re not dating right now, but any charming young men on the horizon that might be date material?”

“Well, actually, there was one. Briefly,” he admitted, deciding if Rory was going to share her pain he may as well do the same. “Long story short, his name was Toby, and he was not all that he seemed. Got my fingers burnt by a pretty face. Happens to us all.”

“Aaaw, Levi. I’m sorry,” she sympathised, giving his hand a further squeeze. “Y’know, I made a friend at work that you might like.”

“Sweetie, you do remember how not all of us are attracted to each other automatically, right?” he said with a look that was more friendly than patronising.

Rory rolled her eyes.

“Yes, I do know that, but I actually think I like him so much because he reminds me of you sometimes. He has the same sense of humour and he’s really sweet. Kinda cute too.”

“That never hurts.” Levi grinned. “I doubt I’d have time to make a great impression this trip, but tell me more and maybe I’ll make a return visit pretty soon.”

It was easier for Rory to talk Philip up to Levi. They were both unattached and both lovely guys, she didn’t see why they shouldn’t like each other. A little match-making for other people was definitely preferable to thinking about her own love life at the moment, and seeing Levi again had done wonders for her. Despite her earlier mood, right now, Rory couldn’t be happier.


	21. Chapter 21

“I still can’t believe they won’t let you take time off for Christmas. That’s barbaric!” Lorelai complained. “It’s downright unconstitutional!”

“Mom, the news never sleeps,” her daughter reminded her. “They try to run on a skeleton staff over the holidays, but I didn’t realise how crazy the rush to take off Christmas really was. Besides, I got the whole long weekend for Thanksgiving last month and that was really, really lucky, especially when I’m so new to the paper.”

“It’s understandable, Lorelai,” Luke told her, his hand over hers on the table. “And it’s not Rory’s fault. How about we try to enjoy the time we have rather than complain about what we don’t have... again,” he advised her kindly.

Lorelai sighed and blew out a breath. She definitely was not happy that Christmas with her daughter involved a rushed afternoon of gift giving and dinner at a packed restaurant in New York on Christmas Eve, but she supposed both Rory and Luke did have a point. It was foolish to believe that she would get to continue on as they had when Rory was a child. Things changed, life moved on. This time next year, things would be all different again. Maybe that was another reason why she felt so tense.

Dinner was served in that moment, starters laid in front of Luke, Lorelai, and Rory with a flourish.

“I’m surprised you went for the fruit, Mom. You’re usually a shrimp cocktail kind of a girl,” said Rory, eyeing the melon in front of Lorelai warily.

“Well, y’know, sometimes you just... Um, yeah, so the thing is,” she started over, placing the spoon she had only just picked up back onto the table and allowing Luke to pick up her hand again. “The thing is that I’m kind of not allowed the seafood right now. Also you might see me actively avoiding soft cheese and, as tragic as it sounds and it truly is, caffeine,” she said pointedly. “Rory, sweetie, the truth is... I’m pregnant.”

They really weren’t sure how she was going to take this. Luke and Lorelai had only known of the pregnancy themselves for a few days and though nobody ought to be told the news until twelve weeks had passed, Lorelai knew she had to tell her daughter and it had to be face to face. Now was the moment, the only one she was going to get apparently. Unfortunately, she had taken her chance and so far received nothing but silence in response.

“Babe?” she prompted when Rory only stared at her.

“Rory?” Luke tried.

Eventually coming out of her daze with a shake of her head, Rory smiled, and relief ran through both her mother and father-figure.

“Congraulations!” she enthused. “Oh my God, I... I’m sorry, I’m just so surprised, but this is great!” she said genuinely as she hopped up from her seat to hug them both.

Lorelai was so happy to see Rory happy. She had been just a little nervous about announcing her pregnancy like this. She and Rory had been the Gilmore girls, out on their own for so long. Accepting Luke into their lives had come easy in a lot of ways, but a new baby was a very big deal. Rory was already a half-sister to GG but little Miss Hayden was rarely seen these days and as awful as it sounded, kind of easy to forget most of the time. This was a whole other ballgame. This was a half-sibling that was going to be around all of the time, a big part of all their lives.

“You’re sure you’re happy about this?” asked Luke as Rory pulled away after their hug. “I mean, I’m glad you are but-”

“There is no but, Luke,” she promised him, retaking her seat and looking from him to her mother. “I swear, it was a surprise, but I am so happy. I know how much this means to the both of you.”

“Sweets, you don’t know how pleased I am to hear you say that,” said Lorelai, tearing up immediately. “And y’know, as much as we’re gonna love this kid, it’s not going to change how much we love you... or April,” she said definitely. “You’re always going to be so important and special to us.”

“I know.” Rory nodded. “Mom, I’m twenty three, not three. I understand,” she said with a smile. “This is good news.”

“We think so,” Luke agreed, picking up Lorelai’s hand and kissing it.

She grinned at him, wiping a happy tear away with her free hand.

“Wow. That went well,” she said with a sigh. “Now we can eat.”

They talked about everything from then on, including Lorelai’s pregnancy, but also all kinds of other things they needed to catch up on. Naturally, plans for Christmas Day itself came around before they ever reached dessert.

“I’m only working a few hours,” Rory explained. “Jess and Logan are working too, and their schedules tend to be a little less clear. We’ll eat together at some point, I guess. Jess is going to make something akin to real food instead of the TV dinner kind they usually have, but it’s not... We’re not doing gifts or anything. It’s kind of a non-Christmas,” she admitted, trying for a smile but failing some in her efforts.

“Well, hopefully next year you’ll be able to get some time off and come home to Stars Hollow,” said Luke kindly. “It’ll be nice to have you there for the first Christmas with baby Gilmore-Danes.” 

“Yes, you have to be there for that!” Lorelai said definitely. “And on the subject of your room-mates, I guess you can tell them about the baby, if you want to. Jess is kind of family now that I think about it, so if you want to.”

“You don’t want to tell him yourself?” Rory asked Luke.

He looked immediately uncomfortable. They had talked a little today back at the apartment when Lorelai and Luke came to exchange gifts with Rory before heading out to dinner, but it was clear uncle and nephew were still unsure on how to properly communicate.

“You can break the news,” Luke assured her. “We’re going to tell April also, but everybody else will have to wait until twelve weeks have passed.”

“We’re talking the middle of February, which seems like forever right now!” Lorelai declared. “But there will be a major celebration in town that day, I swear.”

“I believe it.” Rory smiled wider.

Inside she was hurting, but there was no way she would let it show. Rory already knew how bad her mom felt about not getting to spend Christmas together properly, and in her condition, the last thing Lorelai needed was further distress. Knowing all that she was already missing and all she may yet miss in the future in Stars Hollow, it hurt for Rory to think about it, but life moved on and she had to go with it. There was no other choice.

* * *

It was the middle of the afternoon on Christmas Day when Rory finally got in from work. She found Jess already there, but Logan currently absent.

“Hey,” she greeted him with a wave. “Um, Merry Christmas.”

“Merry Christmas to you,” he replied with a smile that was still a little forced.

They hadn’t talked much these past few weeks. Since Thanksgiving, everything had gotten awkward again. Rory did her best, but Jess just seemed to want to get away from her as much as possible. She thought about calling him on it, but every time she considered it, Rory ended up backing out. It was the same when she thought about apologising a second time about the kiss in Stars Hollow. It would be massively fat-headed to believe that was his problem still, and yet Rory knew things had changed in that moment on the bridge. Jess liked her, she knew it, and screwing with the balance that had been painful to find in the first place was all her own doing. She kept hoping it could be found again, and yet.

“Logan texted a while back,” said Jess then. “He should be home within an hour, so I started on dinner, since you said you planned on being no later than four.”

“I made good time,” Rory realised, checking her watch and seeing it was a little after two thirty. “You need help with the food?”

“You don’t cook,” he reminded her. “Unless we want Pop Tarts for Christmas dinner,” he said, smiling amiably enough.

“Very true.” Rory nodded. “I was really just being polite. Maybe I’d be better off going to get changed.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Jess agreed, the two sharing a smile as Rory slipped away to her room.

The moment she was gone, Jess ran a hand over his face and moved off to the kitchen, pouring himself a healthy shot of scotch. Usually he wasn’t much of a hard liquor kind of guy, but Logan got the bottle in for the festivities and Jess had a feeling today was going to be a long day. Drinking in the middle of the afternoon was more Liz’s style than his own, but for once Jess was okay with following the family tradition. Besides, it was the Holidays. Whilst Jess was pretty sure the birth of Christ was not supposed to be used as an excuse to get drunk, a lot of people used it for that, and just this once, he was going to have to join their ranks. Special circumstances. God would probably understand.

When Rory emerged from her room, Jess had hoped she wouldn’t look too good. In dark jeans and a red top bearing a picture of Rudolph, she should have been more amusing than sexy, and yet. Jess put his eyes back on the stove and eyed his half drunk scotch on the worktop. Longest day ever.

“You sure I really can’t do anything?” she asked from somewhere behind him. “I mean, I have been known to chop vegetables a little or at least wash some pans or whatever.”

“Er, could you maybe just watch that pan for a minute” asked Jess. “Seriously, it’s not a major task, just yell if it starts to bubble over the top, okay?”

“Sure, yeah. I can do that.” Rory nodded, moving to step forward just as Jess stepped back.

They moved past each other awkwardly, the entire lengths of their bodies seemed to brush together in the best and worst ways. They shrugged it off as best they could, but it didn’t come easy. Rory shook her head, concentrated on the task at hand. She had watched pans before, it was no big deal, she did it for Luke once, as she recalled. That put her in mind of him and her mom, and then she realised she hadn’t really talked to Jess since before her dinner with the folks.

“Oh, I have news for you,” she said, barely glancing at him in his busy work before returning her eyes to the very important almost-boiling pan. “When I was out with my mom and Luke last night, they kind of had an announcement. She’s pregnant.”

“Oh yeah?” said Jess, smiling a little as they glanced at each other. “That’s cool. It’s what they wanted, right?”

“Yeah. I mean, I don’t think they planned for it to happen right now exactly, but they planned to have kids at some point,” Rory agreed. “I’m really happy for them.”

“Y’know that reminds me, I meant to call Luke today, do the whole ‘Merry Christmas’ thing, thank him for the gift card,” said Jess thoughtfully. “You okay with those pans for another five minutes?”

“Sure, I’m good,” Rory promised, as he left the room, taking his glass of scotch with him.

Downing the rest of his drink, Jess dialled Luke’s number. He really did mean to call the guy but at the same time he was happy to escape from being in close quarters with Rory for a little while. The conversation with his estranged uncle was all fairly standard, the usual holiday greetings that one would expect, plus thanks for the gift and congrats on the baby. It was a fairly short call in the end, which was fine by both awkward relations. It worked out well since almost the second Jess hung up he heard Rory yelling. Rushing back into the kitchen he found a pan tipped over on the stove top, hot water sloshing everywhere, and Rory gripping her own hand, trying not to cry.

“It boiled over so I tried to move it. It was very hot and... ow!” Rory winced when she dared to take a look at her hand and found it was as red raw as it felt.

Jess wasted no time in rushing her to the sink and plunging her hand under a steady stream of cold water. It was only when the initial panic had passed that they realised quite the position they were in. Rory was pressed against the counter top with Jess tight against her back. It was the closest they had been since she kissed him, and even then they had not been quite so intimately pressed together.

Rory swallowed hard, and turned as much as she dare to look at Jess, which wasn’t an easy manoeuvre.

“Thanks,” she said more softly than she meant to.

“Rory...” he began to reply when suddenly the front door slammed open.

“Merry Christmas!” yelled Logan from the living room. “Hello?” he tried when no answer came.

As he got to the kitchen door, Rory and Jess sprung apart like shrapnel, and it was impossible for Logan not to notice.

“Hey, what happened?” he asked, watching Jess shut off the faucet and Rory grab for the papertowels.

“Nothing really, just a minor kitchen incident,” she mumbled. “Um, Merry Christmas,” she forced out then, finding a smile.

“And to you too.” Logan grinned, his hand coming out from behind his back and showing the mistletoe he carried. “What do you say, Ace? Give a guy a break for the Holidays?” he teased.

Deciding it couldn’t really hurt and feeling a strange need to sort of even things out, if that made any sense, Rory moved forward, past Jess who was now fixing things on the stove top, and threw an arm around Logan’s neck as she kissed him full on the lips. Honestly, even he seemed surprised by the force of her kiss, but he didn’t complain at all and got all he could out of the moment. Logan had a plan here. He was going to make Rory and Jess admit to their feelings if it was the last thing he did, and if jealousy was the only way to prise a confession out of his friends, so be it.

“Wow. Now I really do wish it was Christmas every day,” he said when he and Rory parted.

She blushed furiously but didn’t exactly look ashamed at what she had done.

“You wanna borrow this and share the love around?” he offered Rory then, proffering the mistletoe in the general direction of her and Jess.

Rory wasn’t so sure she wanted to go for it. Actually, that wasn’t true, the larger part of her really did want to but it didn’t seem like the best idea. She waited to see what Jess would say and tried not to look disappointed by his eventual reaction.

“Guys, I’m trying to cook here,” he told them, sounding oddly like Luke, Rory thought. “Could you just get out of the way for a while?” he urged, all in good nature it seemed.

Rory was still disappointed and it showed.

“C’mon, Ace. Let’s go find some trashy Christmas movie on TV,” Logan offered, his arm around her shoulders.

Today was not going according to the plan at all, and things did not improve as the day went on. Logan hated that. They ate their food (which was delicious), pulled crackers and made jokes, but just as soon as the meal was done, things took a turn. Logan offered to do the dishes, since Jess cooked, and Rory said she would help. Logan told her no, she did all the decorating for Christmas so the dishes would be his contribution. Besides, he had a plan to leave Rory and Jess alone and hope for the best. Unfortunately, by the time he was done with the dishes, they were both gone behind two slamming bedroom doors. Logan had heard no yelling so he had to assume they just both wanted to be alone.

“Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night,” he said to himself, sitting down on the couch alone with the rest of the bottle of scotch.

It would be the next morning that Logan awoke to find himself still alone, and feeling the cold. There was a slam as he came to that he almost thought must have been his head thudding from too much booze. It took a while for him to realise it was more likely to have been the front door. With a mouth like carpet and a head beating like a drum, Logan tried to sit up and take notice, then he spotted the note on the table. Taking three attempts to focus his eyes, he eventually managed to read the words in recognisable penmanship.

_‘Gone to Philly for a few days._

_I’ll see you when I see you._

_J.’_

Logan practically growled and crumpled the note in his hand.

“Damnit, Jess!”


	22. Chapter 22

There was a strange mixture of relief and sadness in the apartment since Jess went away. The pressure was off now that he wasn’t around all the time. Rory didn’t have to straddle the line between the awkwardness of wondering why he didn’t want to be around her and her own conflicting feelings for him. Still, she missed him. She missed the conversation and just his presence in the apartment. It drew into sharp focus how much she genuinely liked him, and what her life would be like if he suddenly wasn’t there. Not that it helped Rory to deal with her feelings at all. Jess’ absence proved that she didn’t want to be without him but to attempt a romantic relationship with him could drive him away even faster than staying friends. Then there was the issue of why he left, something she couldn’t ask him even if she wanted to since his phone seemed to always be off when Logan tried and she doubted she would fare any better even if she did have the gall to try.

“He’ll be back,” said Logan, on a daily basis from Christmas to now.

It had been a week already. New Year’s Eve was upon them and still no sign or word from Jess since he left a note on the table about Philadelphia and disappeared into the dawn. Rory was staring pointlessly into her coffee cup that morning when Logan returned to the apartment after his early shift.

“That is it, I’m done!” he declared, throwing his keys onto the coffee table and dropping down on the couch beside Rory. “Don’t ask me how I did it or what it’s costing me, but for you, Ace, I have freed myself up for tonight. I am yours to do whatever you want with,” he said, just this side of suggestively.

Rory didn’t notice. She had barely heard him come in never mind sit down beside her, at least until his hand landed on her shoulder and he spoke again.

“Ace? You in there?”

“Huh? Oh, sorry, Logan,” she apologised, shaking her head as she put her now cold coffee down on the table. “Um, I think I’m... What time is it?”

“A little after seven,” he told her, the frown that had started to appear a moment before now deepening. “Rory, come on, you’re scaring me now.”

“I’m fine,” she promised, forcing a smile. “I was just thinking, apparently too hard,” she told him, rolling her eyes. “I should go to work.”

She got up but Logan’s hand on her arm stopped her going anywhere.

“I think you missed what I said when I came in,” he told her. “I’m all yours tonight, for the whole New Year’s thing. I know a couple of parties we could hit if you want, or I may be able to call in a favour and get us a table at one of the mid-range restaurants.”

“Oh, that’s sweet, Logan,” she told him, smiling awkwardly, “but honestly, I was going to stay in tonight.”

“Staying in it is,” he agreed easily. “I’ll make sure we have bubbles of some kind, we’ll watch the ball drop on TV, and we will see in this new year with a smile in spite of certain room-mates that shall remain nameless,” he said pointedly, meeting her eyes.

Rory felt her lip quivering and bit it hard. She was not going to cry because that would be ridiculous. There was no way she wanted or needed to be emotional right now. So Jess was in Philly, so what? He knew people there, his publishing friends that put out his first book and were assisting with a second. He needed a break and he took one, it wasn’t as if he owed her or Logan anything. They could have a nice evening here together. She and Logan were friends and he wanted her to be happy. Rory wanted that too. It was so stupid to sit and mope when in real terms there was nothing to mope about.

“Sounds great,” she said eventually. “Thanks, Logan.”

She found him a real smile, even if it was only a small one, squeezing his hand before getting up to leave for work at last.

She was stronger than this, she had to be. Crying over a man she never dated and maybe never would was ridiculous, and allowing New Year’s Eve to become just another day was not happening. It just was not happening!

* * *

Rory had not expected to feel this happy about the coming New Year and yet in the last half hour her face had started to ache from the sheer amount of smiling and laughing she had been doing. To be fair, the alcohol might well be a factor. Logan had managed to get a couple of bottles of cheap-end bubbles for midnight, but up until that time they were indulging in beer, plus a bottle of scotch that his sister had sent him for Christmas. It was probably too expensive to be downed in quite the manner Logan and Rory were drinking it, but neither seemed to care much tonight.

They ended up in Logan’s bedroom, though Rory was a little vague as to the how. Something about him going to fetch the scotch from Honor and her following because she was mid-sentence at the time? However it had occurred, they were both laid out on his bed now, Logan at the top end and Rory at the bottom, swapping stories about anything and everything to pass the time to midnight.

“So, exactly how many girls have laid where I’m laying right now?” she asked, her question somewhat slurred and her giggling at its utmost.

“A gentleman doesn’t kiss and tell, Ace,” said Logan, sipping his drink.

“A gentleman wouldn’t have kissed as much as you have,” she countered with a wicked smirk.

Logan laughed.

“Hey, this cat has claws!” he said of her sudden attitude. “You gotta learn, Rory, not everyone is looking for a relationship every time they hook up. Some people are just looking for a good time, not a marriage,” he teased her, all in good fun.

“I’m not a prude or anything,” she told him, definitely. “I’ve had boyfriends, plural!”

“Really? How numerous are these boyfriends?”

Logan was intrigued. He had never talked to Rory explicitly about her love life or his own. She knew he was the type to put notches in the bed post and never a ring on a finger, whilst he was well aware she was the type to make a commitment and want to be romanced by a real boyfriend type. It meant they would never make a couple, however easily it might be to be tempted into it. Logan was curious about the men who had won Rory’s heart before, though he couldn’t say in this moment why he would want to torture hismelf in such a way.

“Well, first there was Dean,” Rory began with a smile. “He was so good to me. We were barely sixteen when we met, and he was such a good first boyfriend...”

It was easy to wax lyrical about the wonder of her teen romance. Dean Forester had seemed like such a keeper at the time, Rory had thought she would never love anyone else. Of course she had been wrong, but she still remembered Dean fondly for the most part.

“College changed everything,” she explained at length. “I felt so grown up, so out-on-my-own, despite the fact that Yale was all of twenty miles from my house. Anyway, I met these guys... and I blame my grandmother for this. She put on some big party, trying to find me a man. Some of the guys there I’d already stumbled across at Yale, and we ended up having this sub-party in the pool house. When Dean finally came to pick me up for our date and he saw me all dressed up and with those other guys, I think we both knew we weren’t really right for each other anymore. We just grew apart, I guess.”

“So you broke up?” asked Logan curiously, moving to refill their empty glasses.

“We did.” Rory nodded. “It wasn’t the first time. There had been issues before. He was jealous a lot, and not just of other guys. If I wanted to spend time with anyone, or even alone to study, he would get cranky. It just wasn’t meant to be. So, that was how I came to be in my next two relationships.”

“Two? At the same time?” asked Logan, eyebrows raised so high they almost disappeared from view entirely. “Rory Gilmore, you’re not the innocent I thought you were!”

“It wasn’t exactly at the same time!” she told him, laughing and blushing all at the same time. “Although there may have been an overlap, but it wasn’t intentional,” she insisted. “There was a guy that liked me, his name was Marty. I liked him too, but I thought we were just going to be friends. After me and Dean broke up, he was really there for me, but at the same time, I was... I don’t know, I think I was looking for excitement and fun, something different to what I just had with Dean. So me and Marty stayed friends, he dated someone else, and I had kind of an intense thing going with this guy named Finn.”

“Finn?” echoed Logan, eyes even wider than before. “Oh, no, no, no. You had a thing with Finn at Yale?”

“You know him?” Rory checked.

“I did know him. I haven’t seen him in years, but yeah, we used to move in the same circles. I was in the Life and Death Brigade.”

“Okay, so it really is a small world.” Rory noted, feeling a little bowled over by the revelation, realising again how close she had been to meeting Logan back in her Yale days. “Anyway, me and Finn, it was... it was supposed to be casual, and then it wasn’t for a while, but ultimately, he was not the settling down type and I didn’t want to ask him to change for me. After it was over, and Marty had broken up with Lucy, he and I gave it a shot, but it didn’t really last,” she explained. “As great as he was, he was a little boring to actually date. I loved him, but not the way I needed to.”

Logan had a myriad of questions he wanted to ask next and thought carefully before choosing one. Rory didn’t seem to have had a serious relationship for at least a couple of years. Nobody post-college had caught her attention until now, until Jess. He could broach that subject if he wanted to, see if he couldn’t find a way to get Rory and Jess on a better path already, but honestly, he wasn’t quite drunk enough to be that reckless.

“So since college, there’s been nobody?” he asked instead.

“Nope.” Rory confirmed, shaking her head and then thinking better of it when the room spun a little. “I went on a couple of dates but nothing serious.”

Again, Logan wanted to say ‘Until now. Until Jess’, but he didn’t. He had promised tonight would be mope free and he intended to deliver on that. Rory actually looked genuinely happy right now, and that he had not seen in too long.

“And you’ve never had a serious relationship?” Rory asked him then. “Not ever?”

“Not really.” Logan shrugged.

The complete truth was that he never met anybody he wanted to commit to like that. There was not a woman in the world that inspired him to be more, to be better, to be the type to step up and make a promise to love, honour, and cherish. If anyone had come close, it was Rory herself, though he resisted the urge to tell her that. Somehow he had to wonder if she knew from the way she was looking at him right now, the oddest mixture of flattered and confused in her beautiful baby blue eyes.

“Logan...” she started to say when suddenly a raucous noise came from somewhere outside or below them, maybe both. 

A countdown had begun. Rory looked quickly at her watch and realised it was no mistake. Five seconds to midnight. Four, three, two, one...

As cheers rang out across the city, everyone telling everyone else to have a Happy New Year, a wave of feelings came over Rory that she couldn’t control or handle. She wished Jess was here, and she was glad that he wasn’t. She wished she was home, but she was glad she was here too. The year wasn’t ending or beginning at all like she planned, and here was Logan, so good and kind and... hot.

“Happy New Year, Ace,” he told her with a perfect smile.

Before she even fully processed what she was doing, Rory launched herself onto him, kissing him fiercely. It was midnight on New Year’s, a kiss was expected. Logan certainly didn’t seem to be arguing the point as the moment went on a little longer than he thought it might. Honestly, he was losing track of anything real, with a woman’s tongue in his mouth and her body moving against his own. When she let out a sound somewhere between a sigh and a moan, Logan’s brain caught up with the rest of him. This wasn’t just any woman, this was Rory, and that meant this was wrong.

“Ace,” he said, the nickname a mumble against her lips as he tried not-so-hard to get away. “Ace... Rory, c’mon,” he said eventually forcing her away with his hands at her shoulders. “This is a bad idea,” he told her, trying to meet her eyes, but his head was swimming from the booze and the severe lack of oxygen, not to mention the lust she had easily ignited in him.

“Why?” she asked, breathlessly, trying to get close again.

Logan forgot to stop her for a moment.

“Because...” he forced out between further fevered kisses. “Because, I’m a casual dater, I’m not... I can’t commit to you,” he tried to tell her, sure there should be more to his argument than that, but right now he was struggling to remember.

“Casual is okay,” Rory told him. “I can do casual.”

She thought she meant it when she said it. If she hadn’t been so drunk, she never would have, but Rory wasn’t exactly thinking right now. She was feeling a whole lot, and it felt really, really good. She knew she was safe with Logan, that he wouldn’t hurt her, that he had to be really, really good at what she was trying to get. This could be okay, if she just let go, if she just lived in the moment. A new year, a new start, and a whole lot of living.

Logan meant to tell her no. He really meant to put up more of a fight than this, for so many reasons. For all the regrets there would be in the morning, and the punch in the face he would probably deserve from Jess for the ultimate betrayal. Unfortunately, all sane and sensible thoughts were draining from his mind, almost as fast as his willpower was giving way to desire. Rory was beautiful and amazing, and beyond willing right now. She was actually being insistent. He did have to stop her, and yet... and yet, maybe he didn’t. Did he?


	23. Chapter 23

There was a banging sound. Somebody was slamming a door repeatedly. No, there was a very large drum being hit over and over. Rory was sure it was one of those two things, or something equally as loud and sickening. It was only when she tried to open her eyes to the world that she realised the thudding wasn’t outside of her head but within. One hand went to her face as she squinted against the light and eventually closed her eyes again in defeat. She tried to think what had happened, tried to remember anything of use. She had been at work and then when she got home, she and Logan had decided to celebrate New Year’s together. There were memories of being in his room, of drinking... a lot. Rory screwed her eyes tight shut partly out of concentration in trying to remember more, and partly in disgust at her own behaviour that she was sure now had been bad. She had kissed Logan at midnight, but it was more than that, more than a simple peck and ‘Happy New Year’.

“Oh, God!” she groaned, dreading what else she might recall if she tried.

Her eyes shot open of their own volition then and Rory was relieved to find herself in her own bed, or at the very least on it, caught up in a blanket, and fully clothed. Nothing had happened. Well, something had happened, but Rory was almost certain that hadn’t happened. It was a relief, and yet she wasn’t exactly feeling great about what had occurred, or about all the alcohol she had consumed. In fact, the moment she tried to get up from her bed, her stomach lurched and it was all she could do to get to the bathroom before the worst happened.

It was embarrassing when Logan found her, though he didn’t seem to be judging. Sitting down in the doorway behind her when he was fairly certain Rory was done heaving, he had brought her a glass of water and some painkillers. She was grateful but could barely look at him, truth be told.

“I’m sorry,” she muttered, taking the pills he offered and wincing as she swallowed them with the water.

“For what?” he checked. “I’ve heard people throw up before, it’s never done me any harm. Pretty sure it’s your body you should be apologising to,” he said with a crooked smile.

“Logan...”

The look she gave him when she said his name spoke volumes. They both knew what she was apologising for, there was no way not to. Last night had been something else, and it needed to be talked about, however painful it was. Logan was suffering with a hangover too, but nowhere near the epic proportions of Rory’s own state. He was way more used to the booze than she was, and it showed.

“You look like death,” he told her straight. “You should go back to bed.”

“I will,” she promised, swallowing hard, knowing even moving from the cold cramped spot between the tub and toilet would not be fun right now. “But first, we have to talk,” she said definitely.

“Nothing to say, Ace,” Logan told her, head tilted against the wall as he smiled at her. “Nothing happened.”

“That’s not true,” she countered, big blue eyes watering from more than how sick she still felt, and he knew it. “Something happened, and it was my fault.”

“Gotta admit, I’m pretty sure you started it,” he agreed, “but I was a more than willing participant. You’re a very beautiful woman, Rory Gilmore. Okay, maybe not right now,” he amended to honesty when her eyes grew wide, “but most of the time, last night, particularly. You’re beautiful and smart and... and you wanted me, or seemed to anyway.”

“I didn’t mean-”

“I know that you didn’t, which was part of the problem,” he admitted, looking away. “The bigger parts were me trying to be the kind of man who wouldn’t do that to either his best friend or a woman who wasn’t exactly making sober and smart choices,” he explained. “And... and because you’re maybe the one woman in the world I could change for, Rory,” he admitted then, meeting her eyes one more time. “If I thought for a second that you really wanted to be with me, I could do it. At the very least, I could try. Who knows? Maybe I’d be the best boyfriend ever if I really put my heart and soul into it.”

The way he said it, the way he looked at her when he did, Rory knew every word was true. Logan liked her way more than she had ever considered before. He could love her in his own way. To sit there and declare himself, it took a lot. She knew from experience that Logan was the type to take a woman home for the night and never see her again. From what she had heard from both him and Jess as well, no woman ever kept Logan’s interest for more than a long weekend before. He talked of trying to change for Rory, of being a real boyfriend, and he was telling the truth. He would love the chance to try and yet they both knew already that it wasn’t meant to be. If it were possible, Rory felt even worse now, and she really hadn’t thought that possible a few minutes ago.

“Last night, you were looking for casual,” Logan continued then. “Usually that would be fine with me, but not with you, Ace. I know what it is to use people, and... and as much of a hypocrite as it makes me, I wasn't prepared to be on the receiving end of that for you. I’m sorry.”

By this point, Rory was all out crying. She had tried to hold it in, but as awful as she felt, in body, mind, and spirit, there was simply no way to stop the tears and sobs that racked her body. Convulsing with distress made every aching muscle hurt more and every slam of the drum in her head louder and more sickening.

“I’m a horrible person,” she cried shamelessly. “Horrible.”

“No, you’re not,” said Logan, moving across the tile towards her and pulling her into his arms.

She all but fell on him, crying hard into his shirt. Logan could deal with that. He figured if he could resist her when she was at her most persistent then he was strong enough to take anything else life and Rory Gilmore could throw at him. Honestly, as much as she was hurting him right now, she was clearly hurting herself a whole lot more. Jess wasn’t helping either, but Logan had tried his best on the score. He had left so many messages already. Short of actually going to Philadelphia and dragging his friend back here, he had no idea what to do. Besides, even that course of action wouldn’t help today of all days. Rory was in no fit state to deal with her feelings for Jess right now, even though they had to be epic in proportion and the source of her ill-advised pass at him last night. Maybe in a couple of days, if things didn’t figure themselves out, Logan would have to step in again. He couldn’t take this much longer, watching Rory self-distruct, knowing Jess was probably doing much the same in an alternate location.

“Why am I such a mess?” Rory asked then, a muttered and potentially-rhetorical question, almost completely lost in the material of Logan’s shirt.

“Because love does crazy things to good people. At least that’s what they tell me,” he said, kissing the top of her head. “You’re not a bad person, Ace, that much I do know,” he said, encouraging her to look at him. “We’ve all made a mess of a bad situation here. Me and Jess by making that stupid pact about you and trying so desperately to stick to it. You two letting things happen but not happen, and you making a pass at me,” he noted, sorry for it a second later when he saw her wince again. “And Jess sure didn’t help anybody by disappearing Christmas night and never even calling since.”

Rory swallowed hard. 

“I don’t know what to do,” she told him desperately, so much the lost little girl right now.

Logan didn’t have an answer for her, not now through his fuzzy head and an urge to kiss away her problems that still wouldn’t quit even after everything. All he could do was pull her back into his arms and tell her it’d all work out in the end, even if that might turn out to be a lie in the long run.

* * *

It was two days later. Rory looked up when she heard the front door slam, fully expecting it to be Logan. She got a real shock when she saw Jess striding into the room, so much so that she got up from the chair without even really knowing why she had.

“Jess. Um, you’re here.”

“Great observational skills, Gilmore,” he told her with a smile. “Miss me?”

“Er, yeah. We did,” she replied, shaking her head, feeling momentarily stunned and unable to get her bearings. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m good,” he told her easily. “I just really needed some time, some space, a little editorial advice. Philly was the best place for me.”

Rory was amazed and really had no idea what to say. She was so convinced she knew how things would be when Jess came back, if Jess came back. She expected a fight over her previous behaviour or some kind of declaration of feelings from him. After all, Logan had told her his theories on why Jess had left in the first place, how deep his feelings for Rory probably ran for him to behave this way. To have the guy in question stroll in, acting like it was a normal day and everything was just sunshine and roses, Rory didn’t know what to do with that.

“Is Logan around?” asked Jess then.

“He will be.” Rory nodded “Any time now, he just... We needed a few things from the store and I had this article to finish so he offered to go.”

She was rambling and she knew it, but Rory didn’t know how to do anything else for the moment. Everything felt so strange, almost surreal. She really had expected anything but this when Jess returned. Anything but normal and simple. The last few days without him had felt so tense and crazy, waiting for something and not knowing exactly what. Now he was back and it was pretty anti-climactic. Rory was surprised not only by how disappointing that was, but also how painful.

“Okay. Well, I’m going to...” said Jess, gesturing to his bag and his room before disappearing through the door.

Rory took a moment to be stunned into silence and inaction, before her brain caught up to the rest of her and she swung into action.

“This is not happening!” she said to herself, storming towards Jess’ bedroom door.

She knocked with a force she barely knew she possessed and then flung open the door without waiting to be invited in. Jess had his jacket off and shirt half unbuttoned by now, looking stunned to see her framed in the door. He didn’t get a chance to ask what the hell was going on before Rory yelled at him.

“You’re an idiot!” she told him crossly, hands on her hips. “You’re blind and stupid and... and a baby for running away from me!”

“I didn’t run anywhere,” he countered, jaw twitching with his own anger at the accusation. “I had to be in Philly-”

“You had to be anywhere but here!” she yelled, cutting him off without a care. “I’m not saying my behaviour has been so great, Jess, but at least I was here. At least I was prepared to try in spite of everything.”

“In spite of what, Rory?” he asked her, voice reaching the same volume levels as her now, never mind what the neighbours thought. “Nothing happened. You made it real clear that there is nothing between us. That kiss on the bridge in Stars Hollow? That was nothing. Any time you seem to actually like me, you make it very plain the very next second that you don’t. So don’t stand there and tell me I left in spite of everything. I left because there’s nothing to fight for,” he told her, so full of pain and passion and anger, like Rory had never seen him before.

It knocked the wind right out of her sails. Rory had thought she hurt Logan before, and she knew damn well she had hurt herself. She hadn’t entirely realised how deep a wound she had inflicted on Jess. He seemed unbreakable, incapable of suffering damage at anyone’s hands. Rory ought to have known better. He had a sweet side, a vulnerable side, a soft underbelly that no-one was ever supposed to see. She wondered if anyone but her and perhaps Logan had ever borne witness. Being one of the privileged few, she should have known better than to screw with his feelings like this, when all she really wanted was to make him happy. To let him make her happy too

For perhaps the first time in her life, Rory had no words, not a single one. Here they were, no more than six feet apart after more than a week of absence, and longer before that of painful silences and keeping their distance no matter how close they physically were. There was nothing to be said anymore and only one thing to be done. Launching herself forward, she wrapped her arms around Jess and crushed her lips against his own.

Perhaps it was a foolish move. She had tried this same thing with Logan two nights ago with disastrous results, but that had been the wrong move and a part of Rory had known that even as her drunken self was carrying out the act. This was so different. This was Jess. This was how it was supposed to be. This was what she had been wanting on some level from the moment they met, she knew that now, as he pulled her close as he could get her, one hand on her back the other in her hair, the feelings between them almost audibly crackling with electricity. Rory wasn’t sure how the rest of Jess’ shirt buttons came to be undone or how his hands had gotten inside her clothes. She was barely aware it was happening at all until the front door slammed and a voice called to her.

“Ace!”

In a second, Rory was out of Jess’ arms and bolting to her room. To Logan, she was barely a blur passing through the apartment before she was gone.

“Rory?” he tried to call for her, giving chase towards her room.

He was stopped in his path by the sight of Jess, stepping out of his bedroom with his shirt more off than on, and a smear of Rory’s pale pink lipstick on his face.

Wearing a smirk that he couldn’t entirely help, Logan looked to his buddy;

“Welcome home, Mariano.”


	24. Chapter 24

“Okay, you need to start by telling me what the hell just happened,” said Logan, tossing the bags of groceries onto the couch without a moment’s pause. “Jess?”

“I don’t know,” his friend confessed, running a hand over his face. “I came home, and Rory was mad. She yelled at me, I yelled back, and then...”

“And then?” Logan prompted. “Oh, and then,” he realised as Jess gave a pointed look and started refastening the buttons on his shirt. “You want me to leave?”

“No. I don’t know.” Jess shook his head. “This whole thing is a mess.”

“You don’t know the half of it.”

That comment from Logan sure got Jess’ attention, though his friend was not so sure he wanted to elaborate even if asked. Stuck in the middle was not a good look for Logan Huntzberger, but his usual escape plans probably weren’t going to cut it on this one. He cared a lot about both of his room-mates, in decidedly different ways, but still. He couldn’t handle seeing either of them hurt. In fact, it seemed as if the only one who was going to come out of this less-than-happy was himself.

“I must be going crazy in my advancing years,” he muttered to himself before facing Jess head on. “Y’know, Rory was a real mess while you were gone? She’s not stupid, Jess, she knows she was the reason.”

“For what it’s worth, I was a mess while I was gone too,” he admitted with a sigh. “I didn’t know what I was supposed to do.”

“Not running from the problem is usually a solid plan if you actually want the real relationship thing to work,” said Logan pointedly. “At least that’s what I heard. Never really had occasion to put it into practice.”

The look on his face, even as he glanced away, was proof enough to Jess that his buddy was not so immune to those kind of feelings as he used to be. Logan liked Rory too, more than he intended. That was as much of a problem as anything else. They couldn’t both be with her, or technically they could, but Rory wasn’t the type to be shared, and this sure wasn’t Utah.

“How are you not mad about this?”

Jess’ question was a valid one and Logan couldn’t deny it. They had made a deal that neither of them would date Rory, and neither of them had. It was all for the sake of their brotherly relationship that nobody wanted to ruin, least of all the girl in question. Unfortunately, more was being destroyed by sticking to the pact than if they broke it. This wasn’t about dating or even sex. This ran way deeper, and there was no denying it anymore.

“What do I have to be mad about?” Logan shrugged, trying for a smile and failing miserably in the attempt. “Am I ecstatic that Rory likes you better than me? No, I’m not. Would I like it to be me in your shoes? Probably, yes,” he admitted freely. “Nobody said life had to be fair, man. We know better than most that it’s really not a whole lot of the time.”

“I’m sorry.”

“For what? For falling in love with the most amazing woman either of us has ever met? How can you be sorry about something like that?”

Jess knew he had a point, but that didn’t make his apology any the less real. He hated that he was hurting Logan, because Rory was right when she said they were like brothers. In some ways they were better than family, because they chose each other. They fought each other’s corner and had each other’s back not because blood told them they should but because they wanted to. They had been there for each other when real family turned its back or couldn’t be trusted. To think that was all falling apart over a woman, it felt wrong, and yet, Jess couldn’t keep denying what he felt for Rory. This was bigger than he ever thought it could be. If he dared to think about it for more than a minute, he knew he loved her, and that he would probably never love another woman as much for as long as he lived.

“You think she can hear us?” he asked Logan, tilting his head towards the bedroom door.

Rory was awfully quiet in there, and the walls weren’t exactly thick. There was a chance she knew everything that had been said out here. Neither of them had been keeping their voices down, but they weren’t yelling either. Jess wasn’t sure whether he wanted Rory to have heard or not. He wasn’t sure he knew anything anymore.

“I don’t know,” Logan admitted, putting a hand on Jess’ shoulder then. “Talk to her. Figure this out. Please.”

He moved off towards his bedroom then, appearing again a minute later with a bag in his hand.

“What are you doing?”

“Overnight bag,” he explained, waving it towards Jess a moment. “I can find someplace else to crash tonight.”

“Logan...”

“It’s okay. Just figure things out before I get back, for everybody’s sake.”

He left then without another word, the door clicking shut behind him, leaving Jess alone in an empty room with only Rory’s bedroom door to talk to. He did need to talk to her. He wanted to kiss her some more, but the words should probably come before the action this time around. Apparently they had Logan’s blessing, or as much as he could manage on that score. It seemed it was time to face the music.

Jess crossed the living room in a couple of easy steps and knocked on Rory’s door, encouraging her to come out. At first he thought she was going to be stubborn and wondered exactly how much he was supposed to push in the circumstances. If he was going to be brave on this, he hoped she would be the same, but there were no guarantees.

“Rory, c’mon,” he urged her. “I just wanna talk to you.”

Behind her door, Rory was giving serious consideration to what she even wanted to say when she faced Jess again. It would have been so easy to just continue kissing him like before, to fall into his bed and let their bodies do the talking. That would have been okay with Jess, even though she knew clearly now it would’ve been wrong with Logan. Right move, wrong man. Jess was the right one, the right guy for her, she thought maybe he always had been from Day One. Her chance to find out in that way had been broken and there was no getting it back now. She heard snippets of the conversation between Jess and Logan, the door closing behind Logan when he finally left. He didn’t slam out, there was no yelling. He had to have been the bigger man and stepped aside, which was wonderful of him, especially after the way Rory herself had behaved two nights ago. If she and Jess were going to be together, if they were even going to talk about that possibility, she was going to have to start there.

“Rory?”

The pleading in Jess’ voice got to her in the end. She opened up the door and stepped out, toe to toe with him as she glanced up and met his eyes. Taking a deep breath, she rushed out the confession that bubbled up in her throat unbidden.

“I made a pass at Logan. I barely remember it, I was very, very drunk, and missing you, and mad at you, and I just... I wanted to feel better. Can you understand that?”

“Yeah, I can,” Jess replied almost immediately, though he hadn’t expected the confession.

So Rory wasn’t perfect. Neither was he, that was for certain. She looked so terrified that he wouldn't get it, that he couldn’t forgive her whatever it was she had done. He felt the need to ease her pain with his own truth.

“Last year, I had a run in with Liz,” he told her. “She’s my mother and I love her, but she really messes with my head. She said a lot of things... It’s not worth getting into but it put me in a bad place, and there was a woman,” he explained. “I don’t know, I’m not proud of it, but she liked me and she was...”

“Easy?” Rory supplied when he seemed to struggle to find the word.

Jess shook his head. “Willing, I guess,” he said at last.

Rory nodded that she understood.

“You used her,” she said flatly, moving to drop down onto the couch, processing.

“I did.” Jess agreed, sitting beside her. “Like I said, I’m not proud of it, but since you started this conversation with all out honesty...”

“Seems like the best way to go.”

A silence enveloped them then. It was at least comfort to know that they were being honest now, and that clearly neither was expecting the other to be a saint in all this. Rory wasn’t exactly sure why Jess had confessed about the woman he used for sex last year, maybe to assure her that wasn’t what he was doing now, or just to make her feel better about Logan. He understood what it was to seek comfort in another and then know you were wrong. It ought to help, but it didn’t.

“So... I made a drunken pass at Logan, but he said no,” she started over, knowing she had to because somehow she wasn’t done yet. “We did kiss and... Well, nothing much more than that happened that I remember , and he swore I was right. He said some of it was loyalty to you, but some was...”

Her voice trailed away because she didn’t want to say it, but the way she blushed furiously told Jess everything she meant, as if he didn’t already know the truth anyway.

“Logan likes you,” he said knowingly, “a lot.”

“I know.” Rory nodded. “He’s such a great guy, I really like him, but... but he’s not...”

Jess wasn’t going to help her out this time, she knew that when she turned to meet his eyes and almost got lost in his gaze. He was waiting for the truth, for the confession she had yet to make rather than further details on the one that had been painful and yet easier to deal with. So far neither of them had really been out-and-out honest about how they felt, and Jess wasn’t quite prepared to make the leap alone. However ungentlemanly, he needed Rory to go first.

“He’s not you, Jess,” she admitted at last. “And if I’m completely honest - which I probably should have been with long before now - it’s you that I want to be with.”

It was the moment he had been waiting for and Jess didn’t waste a second in making the most of it now it had arrived. In a second he had Rory in his arms, kissing her breathless. She sure didn’t seem to mind at all, and yet this was different to a while ago in his bedroom when passion had ignited between them. It meant more, it mattered because they knew they were both feeling the same thing, and it was way more than mindless lust.

“Do you know how crazy I’ve been going?” Jess asked her, forehead resting against hers as they both forced themselves to breathe. “Living with you and trying not to want you, not to like you like that, you know how impossible that was?”

“Kind of,” Rory admitted, one hand at his face, the other in his hair as she confessed all with her eyes as much as her mouth. “I mean, in the beginning, I knew I liked both you and Logan, but I don’t think I thought about how much I did. Then when you both seemed to like me, I freaked out. I thought it was easier if we were all friends. All I knew for sure was that I couldn’t stand the idea of breaking up your friendship. Whatever I was feeling, it was just friendly feelings, and sure, I knew you were both attractive, but it didn’t mean I was falling in love with either of you or anything. Boy, was I ever wrong?” she said, her ramble only really reaching her own ears when she saw Jess’ amazed expression. “Oh, I didn’t mean that I... Love is a big word,” she said, an inch from back-pedalling as she looked away.

Jess’ hand at her cheek brought her back to the moment in a second, and she didn’t want out a second time.

“I don’t know what else to call this,” he assured her. “Rory, I swear, I have no idea what this feeling is but it’s bigger than me. More than I thought I could deal with, actually,” he confessed.

Rory swallowed hard. “And now?” she asked, dreading hearing that despite all their confessions and fevered kissing the brakes might suddenly be applied for some reason that she would have a tough time understanding.

It was a blessed relief when he just pulled her ever closer and kissed her one more time.


	25. Chapter 25

Logan wasn’t sure what he expected to find when he came home Monday morning. It had been easy enough to find somewhere to crash the last two nights, but now he just really needed the use of his own room, another change of clothes, that kind of thing. He headed into the place he called home after an early shift at the coffee house, with eyes and ears open and ready for whatever they saw and heard. For all he knew, Rory and Jess could’ve killed each other by now, or there was the other extreme that he wasn’t sure he was ready for either.

“Be a man, Huntzberger,” he muttered to himself as he headed for his room, thankfully the closest door to the entrance.

Still, he never quite made it in before the door across the living room opened and Rory stepped out.

“Logan, hey!” she said, smiling at the sight of him.

“Hey, yourself, Ace,” he replied, more relieved than he should probably have been that she had emerged from her own bedroom and not Jess’ instead. “Everything okay here?”

“More than okay,” she promised him. “Um, I mean... Yeah, it’s all okay.”

She went from happy to awkward in nought-point-five seconds, and Logan knew why. She felt guilty and uncomfortable now that she and Jess had clearly made their peace, and potentially a whole lot more besides. Rory didn’t love Logan the way she loved Jess, that much was painfully obvious, but she was the last person in the world that would ever want to hurt anybody, Logan knew that too.

As if summoned by the very thought, Jess stepped out of his room then, looking curiously between Rory and Logan.

“Hey,” he greeted his friend after a few moments. “I thought I heard the door.”

“You did,” Logan confirmed. “So, I’m guessing I just entered the Love Shack, huh?”

“Not quite,” said Rory, blushing furiously.

“Depends on your definition,” added Jess, hands shoved in his pockets and looking almost as awkward as Rory.

Logan took pity on them and excused himself to his room, but that didn’t really solve anything. Rory sighed heavily and ran both hands back through her hair.

“This is awful,” she said, looking at Jess. “We can’t live like this.”

“I am not going back to how it was before,” he told her definitely. “C’mon, Rory, you can’t want that.”

“I don’t. Of course, I don’t,” she promised, moving toward him. “But we can’t... It’s wrong to flaunt this in front of him.”

“I know that.” Jess rolled his eyes, taking her two hands in both of his and entwining their fingers. “But I want to be able to flaunt it. I don’t want to feel like I can’t be within three feet of you because of Logan. I already lived like that too long.”

“I know.” Rory nodded. “Maybe I should move out.”

“Maybe you shouldn’t,” said Logan, appearing behind her. “C’mon, Ace, nobody wants you to go. For one thing, it’d put my share of the rent back up, and that’s not going to work for me,” he told her with the usual patented Huntzberger smile, though this one didn’t quite reach his eyes.

“We can’t keep on hurting you,” Rory insisted. “Neither of us wants that.”

“I know, and you’re not,” he told her definitely, glancing to Jess to make sure he knew it too. “Do I love that it’s all worked out between you two and I’m the third wheel? No, of course not, but I’ll live, I promise.”

There was a whole lot that Jess wanted to say right now, but he didn’t have the words. He wasn’t raised to say what he felt. He was barely raised at all so much as left to his own devices. If he had known better, it wouldn’t have taken so long for him and Rory to get to this point. It was a given that Jess and Logan were as close as brothers, but they never said it. No talk of how much they meant to each other, which he supposed was normal with any guys, but right now it felt like something needed to be expressed.

“If I had a choice, man...” he said, his expression conveying everything he couldn’t manage in words.

“I know.” Logan nodded. “But you don’t. I get it.”

The problem was just how much he really did understand Jess’ feelings. He could’ve been the guy for Rory. If the situation had been different, if she met Logan but not Jess, then the two of them might’ve been the happy couple in this scene instead. All the ifs and buts in the world didn’t change what had actually happened. As much as nobody wanted to see anyone else hurt, there was simply no way out of it.

“You’re really sure you don’t want me to find someplace else to live?” Rory double-checked with Logan. “Because I can try.”

“Ace, please,” he urged her, rolling his eyes. “All I want is for you two to be happy. I don’t think adding distance is going to achieve that.”

“I agree, and thank you, but I want you to be happy too.”

“And I am, or I will be,” he tried to tell her. “If I’m real lucky then one day I’ll be as happy as you two are right now, but for now I’ll settle with being happy for you until something else comes along,” he told her with a smile.

Still she didn’t quite buy that he was genuinely happy, but maybe that was just too much to ask in the circumstances. Hopefully in time he would find another woman that he could care for who would care for him too, and he would be as happy as Jess and Rory. Maybe that was too much to hope for also, but that didn’t stop Rory from wishing.

Logan excused himself to his room, saying he intended to stay there a while this time. He needed sleep, and he advised Rory that she probably needed to be headed out to work already. She countered that she actually didn’t have to be in until later today since she worked some of Sunday, and for a moment it felt like it had before, the silly bickering and banter of room-mates.

“I’ll see you later, man,” said Jess as his friend disappeared into his room, raising a hand in mock-salute a moment before the door closed.

Rory looked at the man she could now call her boyfriend and saw how sad he looked. He hated to hurt Logan just as much as she did, even if he wasn’t being quite so vocal about it. They really were like brothers, and it would always cause Rory pain to know she changed that relationship forever. Logan was putting on a brave face for now, so was Jess, but they both knew things could never be the same.

“What can I do to make it better?” she asked him sadly, immediately regretting the question when Jess looked at her with a smirk on his lips. “I didn’t mean anything like that,” she told him, blushing profusely.

Jess loved when she did that, it was too cute. Kissing her forehead, he pulled on her hand, moving quickly towards the kitchen. Rory frowned but followed him anyway, more out of momentum than design. As soon as they got to the door, Jess spun her around and all but pinned her to the counter, kissing her thoroughly.

“Furthest point in the apartment from Logan’s room,” he said when they parted.

“I thought that would be my room,” Rory considered the moment the kiss-induced haze faded from her brain.

“Yeah, but there’s really not room for two of us in there unless we get real creative,” said Jess, not giving her a chance to comment on that before he moved on. “Right now, I’m just trying to ask you a question. Rory, you wanna go out on a date with me?”

“What?” she asked with laughter in her voice.

Jess rolled his eyes.

“It’s a standard question with a yes or no answer,” he told her. “Do you, or do you not, wanna go out on a date with me?”

“Well, yes, of course I do,” she said at last. “I’m sorry, I just... Well, we live together already. This thing with us has been pretty unconventional so far.”

“Hence the reason for a little conventionality,” said Jess easily. “I thought you’d like the idea.”

“Jess, I love the idea,” she promised, realising perhaps a little too late how nervous he seemed to be about this. “What night did you have in mind?” she asked, putting her arms up around his neck and keeping him close.

“Friday or Saturday is traditional, but I know you work different days sometimes, and my shift patterns are going to be pretty crappy since I bailed for so long between Christmas and now. Neither of my bosses are too happy with me.”

“We’ll figure something out,” Rory assured him. “But my answer still stands, for whatever night we pick in the end - yes, I would love to go out on a date with you, Jess Mariano.”

The smile that brought to his face was brighter than the sun to Rory. She loved knowing she had caused it, and she loved Jess more than she ever thought possible. It felt good to realise it, and even better when he kissed her.

* * *

“I knew it!” Marnie exclaimed, slamming her hand on the table. “I knew it! Didn’t I tell you this would happen! I bloody knew it!”

“Just a guess, but do you think maybe she knew it?” said Philip in full sarcasm mode.

All Rory could do was laugh.

“Well, I’m glad you guys knew just exactly what would happen, because I certainly didn’t,” she told them honestly. It’s been kind of a mess for so long, I’m just glad we got it figured out in the end. I am so happy - beyond happy - being with Jess.”

“That’s plain enough to see,” Philip confirmed. “You look like you slept with a hanger in your mouth last night.”

“You don’t know how tempted I am to make a lewd remark about how you actually probably slept last night.” Marnie grinned. “But no, you probably didn’t. I get the impression this Jess might just be a gentleman, and we already know that our Rory is no fan of the come and go approach,” she said, giving due consideration to the situation at hand.

“I know what you think about me and my romantic ideals, Marnie.” Rory rolled her eyes.

“No, I don’t think you do, actually,” she countered. “We’re different people, Gilmore. So different, it’s almost like we’re seperate bloody species sometimes, but I understand you better than you think, and what’s more, I respect you,” she said, pointing a finger at a stunned Rory.

“You respect me?” she echoed. “For not sleeping with the guy I... the guy I’m with?” she said, realising that to admit she loved Jess would be a little too strange right now even if it was completely true.

“I respect you for knowing your own mind and sticking to your guns.” Marnie nodded firmly. “Not many do that these days, darling, not when all those around them are doing something else. Takes balls, sweetheart. You get respect for that.”

“Wow!” said Philip, looking almost as shocked as Rory did. “That’s profound for her”

“Tell me about it”

“Honestly,” Marnie sighed, rolling her eyes for good measure, “you two have no faith in me.”

“But sweetheart, we’re the only ones around here that’ll put up with you,” Philip reminded her, grinning form ear to ear.

She playfully swiped at him, but was prevented from really fighting back when her cell started ringing on the table.

“Oh, bugger!” she grumbled, checking the screen. “Gotta take this. Hello, Mum?” she said into the phone, moving away from the table. “No, it’s a very bad line...”

Rory giggled at the faces Marnie was pulling as she walked away and then took a good long drink of her coffee. Still the wide smile remained on her lips.

“You’re so happy,” Philip noted, chin rested on his fist as she stared at her. “I feel like I should throw a parade.”

“A parade?”

“It’s practically the go-to celebration of my kind,” said Philip, too seriously.

Rory laughed at that too, stopping abruptly when she heard Marnie from the hallway, yelling into her phone.

“Marnie doesn’t get along with her mom?”

“Does Marnie really get along with anybody?”

Phillip definitely had a point on that, Rory knew.

“I can’t imagine not being close to my mom,” she said, shaking her head. “I called her within an hour of me and Jess figuring things out. I just had to tell her.”

“And she was happy too?”

“Very happy. Apparently it was clear to her how me and Jess felt about each other as far back as Thanksgiving. How is it everybody knew we should be together but us?”

“Love is blind, sweetheart” her friend reminded her, and then with a heavy sigh; “In my case, it may also be paralysed.”

“Aaw, poor Philip,” Rory sympathised, her hand squeezing his arm. “If it’s any help, I pitched you to my friend Levi, and he said he’d love to meet you next time he’s in town.”

“Really?” he checked, looking immediately more chipper. “Would I like him? Tell me everything!”

Rory giggled and got into deep conversation with Philip about Levi, before conversation bounced back to her and Jess, and potential date locations and activities for when they went out. It was so nice to be so happy, to be amongst friends, to feel really good about life again. Rory was so looking forward to her first official date with Jess, but honestly, even though she knew she had inadvertently injured Logan, she felt pretty good about life in general right now. Everything was coming together at last.


	26. Chapter 26

“So, yeah, basically, me and Rory are... well, I guess dating isn’t entirely accurate since we didn’t go out yet, but we’re together.”

“Together?” Luke echoed. “As in... No, wait, I don’t wanna ask that.”

Jess tried not to smirk too much, perching the phone under his chin when he needed his hands for a minute to change the order of some books on the shelf. Poor Luke. When he called to talk it seemed like it was just a general ‘how are things?’ kind of a thing, but there was no way he hadn’t heard from Lorelai that Jess and Rory had decided to be together. Jess wasn’t sure whether to expect the concerned relation for him or the stern father figure for Rory’s sake. So far it seemed maybe somewhere in the middle.

“Luke, if it makes you feel any better, me and Rory are still in separate rooms. I know that you know she’s not that kind of woman, and I care about her too much to be that guy.”

He heard the sigh of relief from the other end of the phone.

“Okay,” said Luke. “That’s... good” he decided on eventually.

“Yeah, well, if and when that happens, I’m not exactly likely to tell you, but you should know that I plan on being everything Rory needs and deserves. I wouldn’t hurt her for anything.”

“You’re a good kid, Jess.”

“Not that I don’t appreciate the sentiment, but kid? Really?”

“Hey, you and Rory are always going to be kids to me. I’m older, deal with it.”

Jess didn’t know how to answer that. Actually, he didn’t mind all that much that Luke thought of him as a child still. The last time they had met, before this past Thanksgiving, had been when he was around ten, so it was understandable. Besides, good old uncle Luke sure seemed to want to make up for his absence now. He wanted to be there if Jess needed someone to talk to or if he needed help with anything. Jess had prided himself on not really needing anyone or anything for a long time but he had to admit, it didn’t suck to have one member of his family actually give a damn about him. From Rory’s glowing reports, he knew what a great father figure Luke had been to her, and if he wanted to be a little something like that for Jess, well, nobody else was queuing up to try.

“So, no actual date yet?” said Luke after too long a silence.

“First one is tonight.” Jess admitted. “If you’d called a few hours later you’d’ve missed me.”

“You planned something fancy, I hope? The Gilmore girls, they like a little fancy,” said Luke knowingly.

Jess smiled. “Duly noted. I booked a table at a decent restaurant, or at least the kind of decent I can afford.”

“Well, y’know...” Luke began stopping fast and changing tack. “Money’s not so important.”

He said it very deliberately, and Jess knew his first comment was probably going to be an offer to help him out with cash. Jess had been a little snappy the first time his uncle tried to hand him money. It felt like charity and he didn’t take kindly to that. It hadn’t taken long for him to calm down and advise his uncle in a reasonable way that he was not looking for hand outs, but thanks anyway. Luke had been careful about the subject since then.

“Only people who have money say it’s not important,” he noted. “Logan knows better.”

“Speaking of Logan, how are things with you two?”

“Things are...” Jess sighed “I don’t know, Luke. The guy’s been like my brother for years now. I don’t exactly love that the first woman he might actually have been serious about chose me, but... it’s Rory,” he said, at a loss for how else to explain. “I can’t just not be with her. I can’t.”

“Oh, I know that feeling,” said Luke knowingly.

It was plain enough that he had the same thing going on with Lorelai. Those two were meant for each other and nobody else would do. Jess had seen evidence of that easily enough in the weekend he spent in Stars Hollow. It was kind of nice having a guy to talk to that understood how he felt.

“Well, I should let you go,” said Luke then. “Have fun on your date tonight. Maybe not too much fun,” he added in a mock-stern tone.

“Yes, Uncle Luke,” Jess dutifully intoned like a child, smiling as he did so, he just couldn’t help it.

He couldn’t have known what it meant to Luke to hear the word ‘uncle’ from him, even in jest. 

“Take care of yourself, nephew,” he replied in kind. “And our Rory too.”

Luke ended the call to the sound of Jess’ promise to do just that, with a wide smile on his face. He couldn’t have known that the same expression was on his nephew’s face right now. It was no bad thing that they had rebuilt this connection, that was for sure.

* * *

Rory felt oddly self-conscious as she got ready for her date with Jess. She would usually understand her own nerves if this was a traditional first date, where she really hadn’t spent a lot of time with the guy and didn’t know what to expect, but this was so different. She and Jess literally lived together and had talked on almost every topic that mattered to her. There was no worry about whether to kiss or not, they had already done that many times, and no real pressure at all. She ought to feel completely relaxed, and yet her hands were shaking as she tried to add some subtle shadow to her eye.

“This is insane,” she muttered to herself, forcing her hand to be still before trying again to finish off her make up.

When she was done, she checked her watch and saw it was just seven o’clock. She stood up from the edge of the bed at the same second a knock came on her door. With a giggle, she moved to open it and found Jess there on the other side.

“Hi,” she said, smiling.

“Hey,” he replied. “I figured it’s not a real date if I don’t come pick you up from your door.”

That got another girlish laugh out of Rory, who turned breifly to grab her purse and then stepped out of her room to join him. It felt a little odd as they both went to step forward at the same moment and nearly fell over the coffee table. It really was a small apartment. Jess stepped back and gestured for Rory to go first, then realised his mistake when she had to open the front door herself, something he had meant to do.

“Going great so far,” he dead-panned as they headed for the elevator.

“Don’t worry about it.” Rory smiled. “You seem very tense, as if you never went on a date before.”

“Yeah, well,” he said, staring straight ahead as they rode the elevator down. “I never dated anyone as special as you before.”

Rory blushed pink at that, but wasn’t so bashful in the next moment when she leaned in to plant a kiss on Jess’ lips. Immediately after, she removed her lip gloss for him with her thumb. They were smiling at each other like idiots by the time the elevator doors opened to the entranceway, and headed out into the cold New York night air hand in hand.

Jess took Rory to a restaurant he knew a few blocks away, putting his arm around her as they walked when she seemed to be feeling the cold. They talked like best friends about anything and everything, and the ridiculous nerves that seemed to get to the both of them at the start of the date vanished before the food ever arrived at their table.

It didn’t feel so very much different to hanging out like they had so many times before, and yet it was, because now they were free to be flirty, to hold hands, to kiss. This was how it was supposed to be, and as much as they probably should have done something about it sooner, neither of them had any regrets.

“Maybe we had to go through all of that to get here,” said Rory, philosophically. “Prizes are only worth winning if you earned them, right?”

“Yeah, I guess so,” Jess told her with a smile, looking at her as if she were the most beautiful person on the planet.

Rory didn’t mind that at all. Women weren’t supposed to want to be wanted for their looks alone, but she already knew that wasn’t the case. Jess had told as her much, in so many words, when he agreed that most of what he missed when they were apart was having someone to argue literature with. Rory had to admit, it was much more fun fighting over things they didn’t agree on than fawning over the same well-loved books. She pretty much brought up her dislike of Hemingway on the way home deliberately just to get him started. Jess was never more attractive than when he was waxing poetic in his defense for Papa.

It was getting late by the time they got back to the apartment, and it felt strange again as he unlocked the door and ushered her inside. Coming back to the same place after a date made a person think of things that came naturally to two people so attracted to each other. It would be so easy to be... well, easy, Rory thought, though she wasn’t quite so sure she was ready for that yet.

Jess certainly didn’t seem to be pushing the point, taking a hold of her hand and walking her to her bedroom door, before letting go and putting his hands behind his back. As tempting as it may have been to take advantage of a situation like this, Jess wasn’t going to be that guy.

“So,” he said, waiting for Rory to decide what the next move was.

“So,” she replied in kind. “Thank you for walking me to my door,” she said, looking as ridiculously shy as she probably felt.

“No problem. It was on my way,” said Jess with a smirk.

Rory smiled and reached up to kiss him, happy to let the moment go on and on. It was only when her back met the bedroom door that she remembered where she was and why maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to keep going. She would be sending the wrong signal if she didn’t stop this now. She really wasn’t quite ready to make that particular leap.

“Thank you for tonight, Jess,” she said breathlessly. “It was great.”

“You’re welcome,” he assured her, pushing her hair back behind her ear, marvelling for a moment at how beautiful she was. “Goodnight, Rory,” he said then, letting his hands fall away as he carefully backed up a step or two.

“Goodnight, Jess,” she replied, giving a little wave, before they both retreated into their own rooms.

Rory fell straight back onto her bed with a great expelling of breath, her mind running over the events of the evening, and most especially that goodnight kiss. Maybe she shouldn’t have been so quick to stop. Having Jess right there across the way sure was a tempting prospect. Probably the only thing stopping her right now was knowing Logan would be home before long. Probably best that she resist the urge, for now anyway.


	27. Chapter 27

“This all looks pretty serious,” said Logan as he sat down in the armchair, watching Jess and Rory shift awkwardly together on the couch. “Guys?” he prompted them to just tell him what was up already. “You’re making me a little nervous here.”

It was Jess that asked him to come out of his room and join them for what was essentially a room-mate meeting. Rory had a habit of wanting them to have these get togethers once in a while, and Logan never really objected, either before or since Rory and Jess started dating. She always had a good point to make or was just as cute and adorable as ever making a big deal out of something and nothing. Of course, it had all been a little more tense this past month, and Logan certainly had kept himself to himself a little more than usual in the circumstances.

Rory and Jess were practically the perfect couple and he couldn’t be happier for them, but the green-eyed monster stirred in Logan sometimes when he saw them together. Part of it was his feelings for Rory and even his brotherly affection for Jess, but part of it was almost certainly more general, seeing how happy and in love these two people were, whilst he had nothing more than empty sexual encounters which were so much less satisfying now he was seeing what else might be on offer.

“Um, okay,” said Rory eventually, getting Logan’s attention back from his wandering thoughts. “Well, we... me and Jess, we have a proposal for you.”

“This country’s came pretty far, Ace, but I don’t think they legalised marriage for three yet,” Logan joked, not caring when Jess gave him the finger for such a suggestion,

Rory blushed like she always did and shook her head.

“No, obviously not that kind of proposal,” she confirmed, as if it needed to be said. “Er, it’s just... Well, I know you said that you were okay with us being together, and you’ve been great about it. It’s not that being here is so awful, it’s really not, it’s just...”

“We’re moving out,” said Jess suddenly.

Honestly, as cute as Rory was when she rambled, he couldn’t take this tension anymore. She had been jittery for two days as they tried to decide on the best way to break the news to Logan, and now she was about to go into hyper-drive over the actual moment of explanation. Jess just needed the words said already, no more beating about the bush. Logan didn’t look quite as surprised as he might have expected.

“Well, I guess I should’ve seen that coming,” he said, expression mostly unreadable by now.

“We don’t want to abandon you,” said Rory quickly. “We would never do that”

“Kind of impossible not to give me some notice anyway, Ace,” Logan reminded her. “Jess and me are both on the lease and that has a few months to run before renewal time.”

“Actually, I talked to the landlord,” his buddy explained, running a hand back through his hair. “He’s willing to transfer my part of the lease to somebody else, since Rory and me... Well, we were planning on renting another place in this building.”

“The couple that lived there just moved out to the suburbs,” Rory explained. “The rent wouldn’t be much different to what we’re paying here, and we like the area and everything. It just makes sense, doesn’t it?”

Logan shook his head, despite the fact he knew she was right. He was smiling even as something in his heart gave way. His best friend and the best woman he had ever met, they were leaving him. Not going far, apparently, but they wouldn’t be in the next room like they had been these past few months. Hell, he’d lived with Jess for years at this point, enough that he felt closer to the guy than any member of his blood family. It felt too strange to contemplate, but as always, Logan painted a smile on it and made it okay. That was the Huntzberger way.

“Hey, you guys wanna go out there and build your own love nest, who am I to stand in your way?” he asked them rhetorically. “And hey, how hard can it be to find new room-mates?”

“Well, we might be able to help you out with that,” said Rory, smiling herself now. “My friend from work, Philip, his place isn’t going to be available much longer. The building got taken over by some guy who wants to knock a bunch of walls down and make these big luxury places. There’s no way he’ll be able to afford it.”

“But he’s already paying more than I do here at his current situation,” Jess chimed in. “He’d cover my rent and even some of Rory’s without a problem.” 

“Plus, if you did want to get a third room-mate sometime and it was another woman, you would never have to worry about this kind of situation coming up again, not with Philip,” said Rory pointedly.

Logan nodded that he understood. He had met Philip and heard plenty about him from Rory, so he was aware that the guy was not at all into girls. He also knew he was a real nice guy that seemed to get along with almost everybody. Logan would have no problem living with him, he supposed. The only problem really was that he wasn’t Jess or Rory.

“Man, you guys have this will figured out, don’t you?” he said, still smiling, and yet it wasn’t an entirely genuine expression.

Rory could see it, she knew Logan well enough to see he was not ecstatic about any of this, but it was Jess that knew best how this felt for his best friend. They were brothers, had been for years now, the victims of abandonment too many times over. Now Jess was abandoning Logan, at least it felt like it in some ways to the both of them. It hurt, there was no denying that, but they were running out of choices. 

Living together wasn’t entirely working. As much as Logan said he was fine with Jess and Rory being together, it was clear that he was never a hundred percent comfortable. It made things awkward all round, made Rory and Jess overly aware of what they were doing whenever Logan was close by. They couldn’t fully relax, not any of the three of them, as much as they tried to. The only solution was for them not to live together anymore.

Rory had insisted she was moving out, and though Jess had started out telling her no, the thought had then occurred that maybe they could move out together. It wasn’t the big deal that it might’ve been. They were already living together, this would just be living alone together, that was all. They even got a deal on a place with two bedrooms to start off with, though Jess kind of hoped one would be a spare before too long. He never pushed Rory into anything and he never would, but a lot of her protests against them sleeping together seemed to be Logan-related. She was always worried about what he would think, what he would hear, what he might walk in on. Maybe in their own place things would be different.

Of course Jess had more reasons than sex for wanting to live alone with Rory, and she had her own too. They wanted to be together like a real couple, and constantly trying not to upset their friend was making it next to impossible. When Philip told Rory he was looking for a new place by the end of the month, she saw an opportunity. Wheels were put in motion as quickly as possible, and all the pieces just seemed to fall into place. All they needed was Logan’s approval now.

“We didn’t make this decision easily,” said Jess eventually. “Man, if you really don’t want this to happen-”

“What? If I don’t want you guys to be happy?” Logan cut in. “What kind of friend would that make me?” he asked, shaking his head. “Every man should want what’s best for his brother, right?” he said, eyes flitting to Rory and then back to Jess.

It was her that insisted they were practically siblings, making a big deal about how wonderful she thought it was given their lack of real family around. Sure, Jess had reconnected with Luke, but neither he nor Logan ever really saw their parents or had any real relationship with their families as such. They were closer to each other, they loved each other, though they never said as much.

Jess got up and put his hand out to Logan. He rose from his seat too and shook the hand he was being offered.

“Thanks, man,” said Jess, just about managing to keep his voice even.

“Hey, you’re welcome, Jess,” Logan promised him, as they looked at each other. “You two deserve for everything to work out, and I mean that.”

Jess nodded, knowing his buddy meant every word he said, even if it was hurting him to admit it. It was hard to believe that Logan was capable of being in love, and maybe it was a stretch to say that he felt quite that much for Rory, but he would’ve given it his best shot given half the chance. He really would have changed for her if she wanted him to, but no. She had chosen Jess and they all had to live with the consequences of that, there was no other choice.

Rory got up from the couch then, throwing her arms around Logan to hug him tight.

“Thank you,” she told him, tearfully.

“For what, Ace?” he asked as they parted enough to look at each other.

“Everything,” she said eventually, gazing up at him. “Just, thank you.”

He smiled at her sweet sentiment and giddy smile, leaning in again to plant a kiss on her forehead.

“You’re a very special woman, Rory Gilmore,” he told her. “He ever forgets that, you send him my way and I’ll remind him,” he said, nodding his head towards Jess.

“I won’t forget,” his friend assured him.

At least they would part ways as friends. Rory was more relieved about that than anybody. Her one and only regret in getting together with Jess was knowing she was hurting Logan. It wasn’t on purpose, she would never do that, but as with war, there were almost always causalities in love too. She couldn’t help it that she didn’t feel that way about Logan or that he did feel that way about her. She only hoped that in time he might find another woman he felt he could care for as much, and that whoever she was, she could feel the same way about him.

* * *

A couple of weeks later and everything happened just exactly like the plan. Rory and Jess moved into a two bedroom apartment, two floors up from their old place, and Philip moved into Jess’ old room. The most interesting part had been dismantling Jess’ many bookcases, that had been built within his room, in order to transport them up to the new place. Everybody pitched in to help, and Rory delighted in helping to reorganise the epic library that Jess promised was hers to share now.

“Our place, our library,” he said definitely when she tried to argue.

“Well, if it’s going to be ours to share then I’m adding my collection to it,” she said, just as certainly. “It makes sense anyway,” she continued, crouching down to tear open a box labelled ‘Rory - Books’. “I mean, like you said, our place, our room, our library.”

Jess stood behind her a moment in silence, a frown on his face. He hadn’t said ‘our room’, not at all. He thought it was understood that the slightly larger room was only his because he had more stuff to put in it, whilst the slightly smaller room would belong to Rory. They moved her bed up here, same as his. Nobody ever said they were sharing.

“Rory?” he said, getting her attention.

She was blushing again which proved she knew just exactly what she had implied. He put his hand out to her and she grabbed on, allowing him to pull her back onto her feet. Rory turned into Jess and swallowed hard.

“I, er... I was thinking how dumb it would be for us to really go ahead with the whole separate rooms thing, and I know that means we could’ve just gone with a one bedroom place, but honestly, I like the idea of having a spare, in case anybody wanted to stay over, and if they don’t, it's extra storage, or maybe even a quiet spot for a desk that we can both use to write, but if you don’t-”

When she seemed ready to hyperventilate, Jess didn't give her the chance to go on. He took her face in his hands and kissed her soundly, leaving her even more breathless than her own rambling had.

“You know I love you, right?” he checked as they parted.

Rory nodded, unable to form words for a few moments.

“I know,” she promised eventually. “Kind of the point of all of this. When I moved in with you guys, I really didn't think I'd fall for anybody,” she admitted. “You were the last thing I expected, Jess Mariano, but it is impossible for me not to love you.”

He knew exactly what she meant. When Rory moved in with him and Logan, she was just supposed to be someone to help with the rent, one more room-mate that might not stay longer than a week when she realised what big city life and living with two guys was really like. Rory had been a surprise, a complete revelation. She had won the heart of two men that never thought of themselves as the falling in love kind, and Jess was the lucky one who got the girl in the end.

“What?” she asked when he just stared at her for a long time.

Jess shook his head, knowing he had no words to explain. He tucked her hair behind her ear and leaned in to kiss her again. It felt different here, away from the eyes of others, not having to worry that Logan or anybody else would walk in on them or hear anything they shouldn’t. It was more relaxed and more intense all at the same time, and though the words had not actually been stated aloud, they both knew the next step was imminent. When they laid down on the bed together in a tangle of limbs and the heat of passion, Rory and Jess knew they were making love for the first time in a relationship destined to last a very long time. They couldn’t have explained how they knew it, but they absolutely did.


	28. Chapter 28

Everyone in Stars Hollow was gathered to see one of their favourite daughters married at last. It was like a Christmas gift to everyone to see Miss Gilmore so happy, becoming wed to an upstanding man that was more than her equal in verbal wit, and the only one who could keep up with the rate of rambling or the amount of food and coffee she could put away in one sitting. Today was the day when Lucas Danes made an honest woman of Lorelai Victoria Gilmore, and nobody was more proud to be there than Rory and Jess.

Though it was a given that Rory would be her mother’s maid of honour, it had come as a surprise to Jess to be asked by Luke to play best man. They had only met again a year ago, after more than a decade apart. As Jess had said at the time, surely Luke had friends or other relations more suitable to stand up with him, but no. Luke insisted he would be honoured if Jess would do it, and so he agreed, as much for Rory and for Lorelai as for his uncle.

This was the latest in a series of trips to Stars Hollow that Jess had made, starting before he and Rory ever actually got together. Once they were a couple, it would have been unthinkable apparently for him not to accompany her when she went visiting, not least because her mother and his uncle were a couple, both engaged and expecting a child together.

Baby Rose Emily, named for both her grandmothers, had arrived on the scene just a little earlier than expected at the beginning of August, and Lorelai wasn’t even out of the hospital before she had proposed to Luke that they be married before the year was out. He agreed in principal, though organising a wedding whilst they were both working and raising a new-born did seem kind of foolish. The town pulled together as always, and before long it was settled. Christmas Eve 2009 would see the marriage of Lorelai and Luke finally begin, and Rory was determined to be there to see it. She booked the time off from work just as soon as she knew it was happening, and Jess made the same arrangements. They were going to be at the wedding, no exceptions, and now, here they were, just as planned.

“It’s beautiful,” said Rory as she took Jess’ arm and they paraded back down the aisle behind the happy couple. “I mean, I knew it would be, but... it really is.”

Jess leaned in to kiss her cheek as they continued following on down the aisle. He had been a little reluctant about coming here like this. Visits to the Hollow were fine most of the time. He and his uncle got along, and Lorelai was so similar to Rory, it was easy to like her. The problem was all the people staring at him today, the whispers he already heard that he and Rory might be next to take their vows. As much as he loved her and honestly couldn’t imagine life without her anymore, they had known each other less than fifteen months total. It was a little soon to be talking about marriage, he thought.

“Hey there, baby!” said Lorelai, taking her youngest daughter out of Miss Patty’s arms and smiling widely. “How’s it feel having married parents, huh?”

Rose squirmed in Lorelai’s arms, but of course said nothing. At not even five months old yet, it would be shocking if she had.

“I think she’s happy about it,” said Luke anyway, kissing his daughter’s head. “I know I am.”

“Right back at you, husband,” said Lorelai happily, grinning like her face would split in two. “This is one of the best days ever.”

“I’ll agree with that.” Rory smiled too, gripping Jess’ hand now. “I’m so happy for you, Mom. For both of you. All of you,” she amended, including her sister in the sentiment too.

“You’re not gonna cry, are you?” asked Jess awkwardly.

“Trying not to,” Rory assured him, giggling through a veil of happy tears when both he and Luke tried to hand her a tissue at the same time.

“Nice to see I’m not the only gentleman to show up here,” said a voice.

Rory spun around with a grin on her face, running at Logan and hugging him tight the moment she reached him.

“You made it!” she enthused.

“Hey, Ace,” he greeted her happily, taking a moment to breathe her in.

She was as beautiful as he remembered, but he didn’t ache so much when he had to let her go anymore. Rory wasn’t his to hold onto. She and Jess were made for each other and he had to learn to live with it. Of course, it got a little easier when he wasn’t literally living with it anymore. After they moved out, he saw them less often, which hurt in a different way, but Logan was man enough to deal. He continued his usual lifestyle for a while, working when he needed to, hooking up with women but never wanting or expecting anything serious. Unfortunately, the shine had gone off that whole situation of late.

Concentrating on work paid off for him and a few months back, his internet venture finally got off the ground. An overseas company were interested in helping him out and for once Mitchum hadn’t had the chance to scupper anything. Logan did well, he made money, and he got to travel some. The last postcard Rory and Jess received from him had come from Japan, and though they had tried to let him know about the wedding in Stars Hollow and the fact he was invited, nobody really expected he would show up. It was wonderful to see he had made it to the reception at least.

“Hey, man,” said Jess as he caught up to them, stoic as always even in a moment when he was feeling a lot. “Good to see you.”

“You too, Jess,” he assured him. “I, er... I assumed it was okay to bring along a plus one? If there’s no spare seat, trust me, we’re okay with sharing.”

“Logan!” said the woman he had now pulled forward by the hand as she slapped him in the shoulder. “You didn’t even introduce us yet. Maybe don’t make it sound like we’re a pair of rabbits in heat,” she said, rolling her eyes.

“Rory, Jess, I’d like you to meet Amber Cole,” he said then. “We met in Japan, though obviously, she is an American native,” he said, since it was clear enough Amber had neither an Asian name nor face.

Amber, Rory, and Jess all made their greetings, shaking hands and such. Lorelai and Luke were distracted by their others guests and didn’t miss the rest of their wedding party at all, it seemed.

“So, how did you guys meet?” asked Rory with interest.

“Please, don’t make him tell that story. It’s so embarrassing!” Amber declared, covering her face with her free hand. “I was not having the best day.”

“Let’s just say we literally ran into each other at a hotel and I got her out of a fix,” said Logan, smiling widely, leaving out the whole part about the fix involving an accidentally locked door and a lack of clothing on Amber’s part to save her blushes for now. “And after, when I was offered a drink for my troubles, assuming as many a man would that said drink would be a little less than vertically enjoyed,” he said with a look, “I instead earned a slap in the face for my presumption, and a lecture about the general ignorance of the American male.”

“Sounds like a real meet cute,” Jess joked.

“I was such a bitch.” Amber sighed. “I mean, it was kind of presumptuous to think I was going to sleep with him for getting a door unlocked, but even I know I went way above and beyond. I was just having a terrible time,” she explained. “Anyway, the next day, I wanted to find Logan to apologise, but he already left the hotel. It was a complete fluke that we even saw each other again a few days later, catching a subway train of all the crazy things!”

“You call it a fluke, I call it destiny,” said Logan definitely. “I was supposed to get a second chance to prove to you I was not the idiot you thought I was.”

The way he looked at her when he said it, there was no doubting he meant every word. Rory watched them share a brief kiss, saw how Amber looked equal parts thrilled and embarrassed by the public display of affection in front of people she really didn’t know yet. It was adorable and perfect. Maybe this was the right woman for Logan, somebody no nonsense, but sweet too. She was undeniably beautiful on the outside, and Rory could only hope she was as nice on the inside where it counted. Logan deserved that, he really did.

Before any more could be said, they were ushered off to the reception. Lorelai and Luke welcomed Logan to the occasion and were pleased to meet Amber too. The party got into full swing with the traditional toasts and speeches, dancing and fun. It went on late into the evening, with all the little ones put to bed in a corner, oblivious to the music and chatter that went on close by.

Rory noticed that Jess had got very quiet just a few minutes ago. They had been talking whilst they slow-danced but he stopped answering a while back and it started to bother her.

“Jess?”

“Can we get out of here for a while?” he asked. “I need some air.”

“Sure,” she agreed easily.

They slipped out when nobody was paying attention, and hand in hand faced the cold night air without really feeling a thing. As cliché as it was, love seemed to keep them warm these days.

Headed in a direction that was oh so familiar to Rory and not entirely unknown to Jess, they found themselves on the bridge over the lake before long. Jess couldn’t think of a better place for this moment, truth be told.

Turning Rory around to face him, he pulled her closer and kissed her without a word.

“I have something for you,” he said when they parted a second later, hand sliding inside his jacket and producing a slim packet.

Rory looked intrigued as she took it from him and carefully prised off the plain wrapping. Inside was a book, which was not exactly a shock. They bought books all the time, for themselves, for each other. Always one more volume to add to their ever growing library that would soon overtake their entire apartment, and yet it never occurred to either of them to stop.

“Oh, wow!” said Rory when she finally saw what she was holding in her hands.

By moonlight, she read the title and authors name from the cover - Blue-Eyed Angel by Jess Mariano. The story she knew, she had read a copy from pages Jess printed for her and they both scribbled notes in the margins as the manuscript was refined over and over. Rory knew it would be published by Chris and Matt, Jess’ friends at Truncheon in Philly, but she hadn’t known exactly when. He certainly never told her the title, or that she would be holding this book in her hand by Christmas.

“Open it,” he urged her, when she seemed reluctant to do so. “Read the dedication.”

Rory’s hands were shaking, and she suspected not just from cold as she prised the cover open, and flipped a page or two. Her eyes started to fill up with tears, blurring her vision before she was hardly done reading the single line on the page.

“For Rory, I couldn’t have done it without you,” she read aloud, voice shaking with every word.

“That’s no misprint” said Jess definitely. “That book would never have happened without you in my life, Ror. I’m pretty sure there are a lot of things that I wouldn’t have right now if not for you. I sure as hell wouldn’t be at this wedding.”

Rory smiled, cried, laughed. Honestly, she wasn’t sure what she was doing, she just felt so beautifully overwhelmed right now. Her mother was married to Luke, at last. Her baby sister was here in the world and perfect as a kid could be. Logan had met someone who seemed ideal for him. Rory was here, in a place she loved, under a bright full moon, with the man she loved staring at her like she meant everything to him, because she did.

“Everything has worked out so well,” she said, feeling stupid when one lone tear streaked down her cheek. “It’s nothing like I expected when I moved into that apartment more than a year ago, and yet... I don’t think I could be any happier.”

“Makes two of us,” Jess assured her as they kissed one more time.


End file.
